TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing Capacity and Implementation Status of the Disaster Risk Management Strategy for Health and Community Disaster Resilience in Malawi
AU - Dewa, Ozius
AU - Makoka, Donald
AU - Ayo-Yusuf, Olalekan A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge all the individuals and organizations that participated in this study. We are grateful for the support provided by DODMA and the Nsanje District Council for the provision of letters of support to enable the conduct of this study. We are also thankful for the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa funding (Grant number: 93093) provided to O.A. Ayo-Yusuf. The study received financial support from the University of Pretoria (UP) School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily the views and opinions of the University of Pretoria or the National Research Foundation.
Funding Information:
It was apparent from the consultative workshops that NGOs had taken a lead in supporting the DEC in DRM design and implementation. This was mainly because NGOs had emergency funds to support the district at the onset of, during, and immediately after a disaster. While this support made the operationalization of district DRM activities possible, it presented its own challenges. First, most of the donor funding was short-lived and focused on response activities, which undermined the DEC’s ability to initiate and implement any resilience strengthening preparedness activities. This finding is consistent with the observation made by the GOM in the HFA report (2011−2013) that donors were not supporting preparedness activities. Second, donor funded projects supported data generation activities only in times and/or geographical areas of their interest, and not district-wide collection of vulnerability and risk assessment data. This meant that resilience strengthening activities were fragmented across the district and dependent on NGO priorities. Third, the reliance on NGO partners for DRM activity implementation created a donor dominance and dependence, establishing a structure that Kita (, p. 246) called “Third-party government,” which refers to the delivery of public services by NGO partners. In addition, Trogrlic et al. (), concluded from their study in the Lower Shire Valley, that flood risk management strategies often fail because NGOs do not have exit strategies and thereby fail to translate ownership of interventions to communities. This observation was also supported by the findings of this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - Floods are among the most frequently occurring natural hazards in Malawi, often with public health implications. This mixed methods study assessed the capacity for and implementation status of the disaster risk management (DRM) strategy for the health sector in Malawi, using flooding in the Nsanje District as a case. Data were collected using desk review and a workshop methodology involving key officials from government ministries, national and international development partners, and the academia. The results show that Malawi had recently strengthened its DRM institutional frameworks, with a pronounced policy shift from reactive to proactive management of disasters. Health sector personnel and structures were key contributors in the design and implementation of DRM activities at all levels. Development partners played a significant role in strengthening DRM coordination and implementation capacity. Lack of funding and the limited availability, and often fragmented nature, of vulnerability and risk assessment data were identified as key challenges. Limited human resource capacity and inadequate planning processes at district level impeded full implementation of DRM policies. These findings call for community-level interventions for improved coordination, planning, and human resource capacity to strengthen community disaster resilience and improve public health. The approach used in this study can serve as a model framework for other districts in Malawi, as well as in other low- and middle-income countries in the context of Sendai Framework implementation.
AB - Floods are among the most frequently occurring natural hazards in Malawi, often with public health implications. This mixed methods study assessed the capacity for and implementation status of the disaster risk management (DRM) strategy for the health sector in Malawi, using flooding in the Nsanje District as a case. Data were collected using desk review and a workshop methodology involving key officials from government ministries, national and international development partners, and the academia. The results show that Malawi had recently strengthened its DRM institutional frameworks, with a pronounced policy shift from reactive to proactive management of disasters. Health sector personnel and structures were key contributors in the design and implementation of DRM activities at all levels. Development partners played a significant role in strengthening DRM coordination and implementation capacity. Lack of funding and the limited availability, and often fragmented nature, of vulnerability and risk assessment data were identified as key challenges. Limited human resource capacity and inadequate planning processes at district level impeded full implementation of DRM policies. These findings call for community-level interventions for improved coordination, planning, and human resource capacity to strengthen community disaster resilience and improve public health. The approach used in this study can serve as a model framework for other districts in Malawi, as well as in other low- and middle-income countries in the context of Sendai Framework implementation.
KW - Community disaster resilience
KW - Disaster risk management
KW - Health
KW - Malawi
KW - Policy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116797307&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s13753-021-00369-z
DO - 10.1007/s13753-021-00369-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85116797307
SN - 2095-0055
VL - 12
SP - 673
EP - 688
JO - International Journal of Disaster Risk Science
JF - International Journal of Disaster Risk Science
IS - 5
ER -