Abstract:

Community is a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage. In the context of emergency management, before any government machinery and support reaches or outside help gets galvanized, it is the community which must respond almost immediately.

This article articulates the role of community support during critical times of emergencies; ascertain how humanitarian organizations can enhance community resilience; explain whether humanitarian interventions which transcend to targeting hosts communities are appropriate in the context of Lakes State’s displacement; and explore the significance of community level preparedness and how community-based preparedness actions can be done in the context of Lakes State.

Three case studies of multi-hazard internal displacement of communities in Yirol East, Awerial and Rumbek North were reviewed. The triggers of displacement of communities were armed conflict, floods, and acute lack of food.

Findings depicted that community support was critical immediately during the onset of the emergencies, communities had no or were not involved in any preparedness processes, aid delivery was overly top down and carried out by humanitarian organizations, humanitarian interventions involving hosts communities were at least helpful in sustaining cohesion between IDPs and host communities. In the absence of community-based disaster management mechanism, the article recommends that humanitarian organizations focus on involvement and participation of community members in preparedness and enhancing capacities of the community to ensure resiliency.

Keywords: Preparedness, Resilience, Response, Recovery, Empowerment, Internally Displaced People, and mitigation

References:

[1].   Brookman, Ryan (2015). The Effect of Community Involvement on Disaster Relief. University of Washington Tacoma UW Tacoma Digital Commons.

[2].   CCCM Cluster (2018). Jier and Mamer IDPs Site: Head Count. Working Paper of the CCCM Cluster, South Sudan.

[3].   CCCM and Protection Assessment (2018). Jier and Mamer IDPs Sites Rapid Needs Assessment. Working Paper of Protection and CCCM Cluster, South Sudan.

[4].   Coppola, Damon P. (2007). Introduction to International Disaster Management. Butterworth-Heinemann, an imprint of Elsevier.

[5].   FEMA (2005). FEMA Hurricane Katrina Recovery Advisories. Mitigation Assessment Team Report, Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast.

[6].   Initial Rapid Needs Assessment (2019). IRNA Report: Maper, Rumbek North County, Lakes State. An Inter-agency Working Paper, South Sudan.

[7].   Initial Rapid Needs Assessment Report (2019). Tali and Tindilo inter-cluster Assessment Report: 11th to 19th September 2019. Coordinated Assessment.

[8].   International Organization for Migration (2019). Mobility Tracking Round 6: Initial data release. IOM South Sudan Displacement Tracking Matrix.

[9].   Manssour, Mohamed and Sparacino, Cristiana (2009). Community-driven Development Decision Tools for Rural Development Programmes. International Fund for Agricultural Development.

[10].  OCHA (2019). South Sudan: New research finds 1.5 million internally displaced persons. OCHA South Sudan Press Release.

[11].  Patterson, Olivia; Weil, Frederick; and Patel, Kavita (2010). The Role of Community in Disaster Response: Conceptual Models. Popul Res Policy Rev (2010) 29:127–141. DOI 10.1007/s11113-009-9133-x.

[12].  Raju, Asger Ali (2013). Community Based Disaster Management. Mississippi State University.

[13].  Rana, Vidya ed. (2019). Building Capacity for Resilience. Asian Disaster Preparedness Center: 2018 Annual Report.

[14].  Singh, Janmejay (2013). Community Driven Development (CDD) – An Introduction. CDD Core Course, Social Development Department, The World Bank.

[15].  UNICEF (2016). Preparedness for Emergency Response in UNICEF: A Guidance Note. UNICEF Working Paper for Emergency Countries.

[16].  Victoria, Lorna P. (2002). Community Based Approaches to Disaster Mitigation. Working Paper for Regional Workshop on Best Practices in Disaster Mitigation.