Interview guide - Legal texts - Assessment report on mainstreaming and implementing disaster ri

Legal texts

Annex 5: Interview guide

Background

There is a rise in the number, frequency and seri-ousness of disasters in Africa due to heightened risks, particularly of drought and floods. These risks can be expected to be exacerbated as a re-sult of climate change and may also lead to more frequent associated disasters in the region.

Disasters strongly affect patterns of development in the countries concerned through loss of human lives, damage to physical property and the natural and ecological heritage, losses of human and fi-nancial resources and the erosion of social capital and systems of governance. In 2008, 96 disasters were recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, including 44

floods and 9 droughts, which affected 16.3 million persons. The ensuing economic losses were esti-mated at US$1 billion.

Despite the effect of natural disasters on Africa’s main areas of development, efforts to integrate disaster risk reduction and climate change adap-tation measures into sectoral development policy frameworks at various levels in the region remain inadequate. As a result, each fresh disaster that oc-curs considerably affects food security, economic growth, poverty alleviation and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and sus-tainable development goals as a whole

In Togo, in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013, large-scale floods were recorded following heavy rainfall in July, August and September through-out the territory. Rockslides, landslides, pollution, bush fires, high winds and floods of marine origin marked by high tides and coastal erosion were also recorded. They led to the destruction of hous-ing, highway infrastructure, schools, the drinking water supply system, electricity and telephone networks, hospitals, markets, crops and livestock and a considerable impairment of the potential offered by natural resources and the environment.

Urgent responses, including concrete implemen-tation measures, are therefore needed to mini-mize huge economic losses, losses of human life and means of subsistence, along with shortfalls in development and other impacts deriving from natural disasters. Accordingly, effective risk reduc-tion measures must be formulated with due re-gard to crosscutting aspects, and put into effect in the context of national and local strategies and programmes. Since projections show dispropor-tionate effects of climate change in the region,

cli-mate change adaptation needs to be integrated into risk reduction measures.

In this regional and national context, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), jointly with the Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, has launched a project to strengthen the capacity of African decision-makers to integrate natural disaster risk reduction into na-tional and regional policies and strategies in Africa.

In order to allow Togo to form an accurate idea of the real situation, the main actors involved in disaster risk reduction in Togo are requested to answer the following questions.

Please be so good as to complete the question-naire below.

Authority interviewed Village/town Prefecture Contacts

Sphere of intervention

1. Information on flood damage

Information on destruction of housing, public infrastructure (schools and other public facilities) and loss of crops and livestock.

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Number of victims/communities affected:

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Number of persons injured:

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Number of deaths:

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2. Flood relief

Did you receive food and non-food assistance?

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Were you given help in being rehoused?

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Did you receive medical and/or psychological assistance?

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How do you rate the measures taken by the authorities, NGOs and other entities in response to the recent unhappy events?

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Have you returned to your home?

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How can emergency relief measures be improved?

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3. Prevention

Have measures been taken in your area in recent years to inform and alert people about flood risks?

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Does the Togolese Red Cross community information system exist in your area?

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How do you suggest improving the information system, including the form it might take if it was to be set up?

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4. Identification of good practices

For the purposes of disaster risk reduction and post-disaster management, several measures and courses of action are often initiated by various local, national and international actors. Some of these contribute to effective and sustainable risk and crisis management. These measures or ac-tions are described as good practices when they meet the following conditions:

i) Stakeholder ownership of the practices/

measures/actions;

ii) Existence of relevant supporting statistics and information;

iii) Participation of all stakeholders concerned about risk reduction, including non-tradition-al interest groups;

iv) Effective institutional arrangements for risk reduction;

v) Incorporation of the social, economic and en-vironmental dimension;

5. Lessons learned at the local and national level

The years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, and even 2013, were particularly marked by floods that had disas-trous social and economic consequences in some parts of Togo. As disaster victims or active participants in disaster risk reduction and management systems, what lessons did you learn during these painful events affecting communities?

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6. Recommendations/suggestions (Local authorities: prefects or mayors)

Do you have any suggestions on how to improve emergency preparedness and management?

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Note: This is an interview guide. You may organize the interview as you see fit. What is important for us is being able to collect information on the various aspects covered.

We count on your objectivity.

The purpose of the study is to assess the efforts of Togo in the field of risk reduction and emergency management.

vi) Translation of policies, strategies and plans into concrete results on the ground;

vii) Effectiveness and convincing nature of the risk-reduction and resilience-building practices;

viii) Reproducibility of the action/practice, where appropriate;

ix) Sustainability of the measure/practice proposed/adopted.

Please help us to identify good practices in your village, canton, prefecture or region, or even in your country, Togo.

No. Good practice in order of importance

Description of the national joint planning and

Dans le document Assessment report on mainstreaming and implementing disaster risk reduction in Togo (Page 76-80)