Sunday 17 May 2015

Redefining Disasters Preparedness And Resilience Within The Philanthropic Sector

By Tammie Caldwell


A billion of dollars is significant amount of money. Indemnity totaling this amount forms the States Governments benchmark of measurement of relative impact for natural disasters. This kind of billion dollar calamities continue to rise in occurrences. New kinds of threats are happening faster than disasters preparedness facilities are available. Such catastrophes include raging tornadoes in Texas and wildfires in western states.

Knowledge exists that those most adversely afflicted by disasters are people already vulnerable and at risk even before the disaster strikes. This knowledge further reveals that risk sees distribution in accordance to larger social forces. This particularly affects allocation of resources such as power to determine the location of a levee or money that affords a safe home. Bottom line is that disasters strikes sharply where philanthropy resides.

Philanthropic advanced activities like leverage, collective capacity and coalition building must kick in immediately disaster strikes. Experience and research has shown, however, that donations from the private sector including from foundations declines dramatically in six months. Donations are also quite poorly coordinated.

Dramatic insights into our social sectors level of resilience and functions as a system are provided by FE MA through a 2011 disaster recovery framework. This framework tells us preparedness is the key to sustainable, stronger and intact survival or resilience after a calamity.

Philanthropy as a sector has to prepare itself better for rapidly changing environment. This environment sees crucial basic infrastructures under siege such as opportunity, law and accountability. This kind of environment measures recovery not in election cycles or in months but in years.

Well documented are the diverse and important roles donor foundations play throughout the spectrum of disaster relief, recovery or resilience. A lot of literature about disaster philanthropy give how to guidance and instructions or which funds went where from whom. Such retrospective analyses see publication months or even years later. These research findings are critical in developing insights for sponsors and their responses over time.

The experiences that disaster afflicted communities go through dramatically show how improved infrastructure data and a sense of urgency shared may accomplish. Any donor organization, which leverages its information effectively, plays a major role in bringing valuable resources and positive outcomes among afflicted communities. One example is Foundation Maps by The Foundation Centers, which is a grant tool available online. It provides sponsors or organization with a framework map that shares and defines in real time crucial data.

Whether it is bankrupt Detroit or an Ebola outbreak in Africa, cataclysm communities are society canaries in the coalmine. They reveal the underlying state of a society infrastructures and their impact on all people. When a calamity happens, we all see ourselves as people, we see our vulnerability and fragility. For an instant, we see us and not just them.

As the environment, scale and rate of recurrence of disasters rises, patronage must swing focus into awareness. It can commence doing this with a shared urgency sense while making a commitment to improve infrastructures of data. That way, first responders have a better opportunity to spring into action faster. It will enable them help communities in self organization long before the rest of the world can mobilize.




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