[Radix] Let our children teach us

[George Kent]

Hi Ben, Ilan, Radixers –

Ilan circulated this fascinating account of recent work Ben did,  
centered on children. It’s all good. However, I’d like to suggest a  
possible addition.

You may recall my preoccupation with a rights-based approach to these  
things. Some of that thinking, stimulated by our conversations, was  
published at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kent/disaster.pdf

You may recall as well my suggestion that one basic right that people  
should have in relation to disaster preparedness is a right to  
information. People should have a right to know what plans have been  
made, what standards apply, who is in charge of what, etc. The nice  
thing about this approach is that it leaves plenty of room for having  
different answers in different places. The right to information would  
not prescribe any particular answers.

Let’s assume, for example, that children have a right to information  
about the measures taken with regard to their school building (e.g.,  
structural standards) and school operations (e.g., evacuation plans,  
training programs). If you then provide the children (older children,  
anyway) with tools for determining whether the required standards and  
programs are being provided, and for coding and collecting that  
information, the children themselves would become part of the  
mechanism of accountability. This  rights-based programming also  
would give them a special reason for learning about things like  
building standards: they would be able to do something about  
deficiencies.
I see an analogy with engaging school children in maintaining quality  
control in school feeding programs. See the paper I did for the World  
Food Program, at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kent/SCHOOL%20MEALS%20AS% 
20ENTITLEMENTS.doc  I wrote this paper not so much with a view to  
improving school children’s nutrition as with a view to getting them  
to understand how rights work. If they get the hang of it in school,  
maybe they would more actively stand up for their rights in the grown- 
up world as well.

Thus, I would like to see children have a right to specified sorts of  
information related to disaster planning, and also give them some  
means of recourse if they feel that informational or other standards  
are not being met. Having them engaged in the disaster preparedness  
system in this active way would give them more reason to learn about it.

I think this rights-based approach might mesh neatly with the work on  
children that Ben has already done.

Aloha, George



On Aug 25, 2006, at 8:40 AM, Ilan Kelman wrote:

> [The full report is downloadable directly from http:// 
> www.unisdr.org/eng/task%20force/working%20groups/knowledge- 
> education/docs/Let-our-Children-Teach-Us.pdf ]
>
> http://www.unisdr.org/eng/media-room/press-release/2006/PR-2006-08- 
> Education-and-knowledge-can-save-lives.pdf
>
> Education and knowledge can save lives
>
> Children are among the most vulnerable population group during  
> disasters,
> particularly while they are attending school. They often die as a  
> result of a lack of
> risk awareness and poor quality of the physical infrastructure. In  
> Pakistan, for
> instance, more than 17,000 school children died while attending  
> class during the
> October 2005 earthquake.
>
> A new review entitled "Let our children teach us" that will be  
> launched on Monday
> in Davos, Switzerland, at the International Disaster Reduction  
> Conference (28
> August-1 September), outlines concrete solutions to reduce the  
> impact of disasters on
> children through disaster risk reduction education.
>
> Prepared by Ben Wisner, an USA professor and disaster risk  
> reduction expert, the
> review, commissioned by the ISDR Thematic Cluster on Knowledge and  
> Education,
> takes stock of initiatives across the globe that reduce the impact  
> of disasters through
> education and efforts to protect school buildings from natural  
> hazards.
>
> The review examines specific teaching practices that provide  
> children with a better
> understanding of their environment and reduce their vulnerability  
> to natural hazards.
> The review contains a wealth of useful resources and a great  
> variety of experiences
> that can be easily exchanged and adapted in many countries. It also  
> proposes
> solutions, identifies gaps and opportunities and encourages  
> governments,
> international organizations, NGOs, private sector, educators,  
> parents, communities
> and children to take action.
>
> In Turkey, an on-going, country-wide, disaster awareness training  
> programme for
> instructors has the potential to ensure the safety of five million  
> children in the event
> of an earthquake while Cuba has made disaster prevention and  
> preparedness for
> response part of school curricula and the payoff has been a  
> significant reduction in
> the loss of lives in recent hurricanes.
>
> Around the world, children in primary and secondary schools benefit  
> from a wide
> number of teaching practices that vary greatly in approach,  
> intensity and quality. The
> review emphasizes that more resources should be devoted to sharing  
> experience,
> translating and adapting curricula and networking on the most  
> effective pedagogical
> efforts.
>
> "Education, knowledge and awareness are critical to building the  
> ability to reduce
> losses from natural hazards. The ISDR thematic cluster on knowledge  
> and education
> gathers a number of governmental institutions, NGOs and  
> international organizations
> that are working together to convince more national and local  
> governments to make
> disaster risk education a priority, particularly in countries that  
> are prone to natural
> hazards. Disaster risk education involves a broad range of actors,  
> not only from
> schools but also from the tertiary and informal education" says  
> Salvano Briceño,
> Director of the secretariat of the UN/ International Strategy for  
> Disaster Reduction.
>
> The review was produced for the ISDR secretariat and Action Aid  
> International and
> provides a basis for the two-year ISDR campaign on "Disaster risk  
> reduction begins
> at school" and the Action Aid schools projects underway in seven  
> countries to
> address disaster risk reduction.
>
> The Davos International Conference, which hosts more than 1000  
> participants from
> all over the world, dedicates a complete session on education,  
> local knowledge and
> traditional wisdom for disaster reduction and sustainable development.
>
> The Conference is organized by the Swiss Federal Research Institute  
> (WSL) and the
> Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF),  
> Davos, and is
> jointly sponsored by UNESCO, the Global Alliance for Disaster  
> Reduction, the
> Global Disaster Information Network and UN/ISDR.
>
> The report is available on line at:www.unisdr.org
>
> For more information, please contact:
> Brigitte Leoni, Media Relations
> Inter-agency secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster  
> Reduction (UN/ISDR)
> Tel: +41 22 917 4968
> Email: leonib at un.or
>
>
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