Thursday, 30 June 2016

What it Means to be Resilient (Part 4) - Managing Natural Assets and Economic Opportunities

We’ve reached the end of our series on what it means to be resilient. In this final installment, we look at the aspects of economic opportunity and management of natural assets. When the aspects of community resilience were identified by the IFRC based on community perceptions of resilience, it was through a global aggregate of feedback. This makes this more difficult for Pacific communities because the idea of natural assets assumes a range of assets both on land and in the sea. In low lying atolls, natural assets refer almost exclusively to what is in the sea (and, of course, the sea itself). So, how can we use these criteria to understand how the SDGs can help improve community resilience in relation to limited natural resources available.

Monday, 6 June 2016

What it Means to be Resilient (Part 3) - Infrastructure and Services

Resilience. The go-to word these days to make you feel smart. Of course, you have to know what it means, and it means many things in many different contexts. We’ve been working our way through what it means for a community to be resilient, and in part three of our series, we look at infrastructure and services.

Why is infrastructure so important? It underpins service delivery. And so, the more resilient your community’s infrastructure, the more resilient your services are. For example: are roads in danger of being washed out during times of flooding? Are electrical sources protected during storms - and can electricity be generated in times of emergency? What is the backup electricity source? Are schools and other public buildings built back from the shoreline and rivers? Have gas stations been raised so that they can still be accessed during flooding? Are health centres reinforced so that they can be operational in times of crisis? Is there proper storage for potable water? What about communications? Will the community be cut off during times of crisis? And transport? Are there plans and is there capacity to stick to them?