The importance of social work roles in disaster risk management in Zimbabwe

This study was aimed at exploring the efficacy of social work roles in disaster risk management in Zimbabwe in the face of climatic changes. It was carried out in Binga district, Matebeleland-North province using the qualitative methodology and a case study design. The study sample was comprised of 8 practicing social workers. Snowballing and purposive sampling techniques were used to select these participants. Data were collected through in-depth interviews using an interview guide. Thematic content analysis was employed to analyze the collected data. It was found that social workers play essential roles before, during and after disasters. On disaster preparedness, it was established that social workers assume roles of educators, community workers and disaster planners. Moreover, it was found that they play the roles of case managers, administrators of social protection and counselors during the disaster response phase of disaster risk management. Subsequently they also act as advocates, development facilitators as well as monitoring and evaluation personnel in the disaster recovery phase. As per the findings, the study recommends that social workers be recognized as essential in disaster risk management at both policy and practice level. Further, there is need to enhance social work training education for flexibility and contextual application of social work knowledge in the field of disaster risk management for quality realization of green social work in Zimbabwe.

Natural Disasters and Risk Management

In recent years, natural disasters have compelled public authorities, organizations, and citizens to increase their efforts in properly planning and implementing effective risk management procedures. Accordingly, in literature contemporary concepts such as natural disaster risk management and crisis management emerged. Therefore, the chapter aims to shed light on the significance of natural disaster risk management and crisis management in the development of an effective societal system by its transformation and to point out the positive and negative factors influencing these management activities. The authors will firstly give an overview of these two concepts, their elements, and development phases, and afterward, the investigation of possible positive and negative factors of natural disaster risk management will be introduced. The chapter will make a significant contribution to filling the gap in the literature on mitigating the influence of natural disasters and risk management.

Science Communication for Climate Change Disaster Risk Management and Environmental Education in Africa

This chapter describes and explains the role of science communication to advance environmental education on climate change with a special reference on Africa being one of the regions suffering from the effects of climate-induced disasters and risks in the increased anthropogenic effects of modern development. It is argued that scientists are poor communicators on what they do, and hence, are often misunderstood by the media and society. This then calls for attention to be paid with regards to science communication, which has to be packaged in ways that make it easier for the generality of citizens to interpret and understand. Efforts in this regard are made possible through environmental education, which has proved to be useful in the discourse of disaster risk management in different parts of the world. The buttressing methodological philosophy to this chapter is applied systems approach. Critical areas of reference are health and diseases, resilient communities, coastal adaptation, and farming practices and technologies.

Cross-country use of participatory research methods in practice to enhance inclusive decision-making

PurposeRethinking participation in disaster research and practice could be facilitated when practitioners are provided with opportunities to pause and reflect deeply on their work outside of the context of their own individual projects and organizational networks. The article draws from an extended collaboration between researchers from multiple countries and disciplines in a working group, which aimed at exploring ethics, participation and power in disaster management.Design/methodology/approachUnder responsible engineering science and technology for disaster risk management, the authors undertook weekly meetings over four months to discuss various facets of adopting participatory methods in their individual projects in Nepal, India, the Philippines and the USA. The article develops a critical reflection of practice using an auto-ethnographical and poly-vocal approach.FindingsThe voluntary, digital, sustained, unstructured, recurring and inter-disciplinary characteristics of the authors' working group created an opportunity for researchers and practitioners from different fields and different national, cultural and linguistic backgrounds to come together and collectively issues related to participation, ethics and power.Research limitations/implicationsIn the paper, the authors do not offer a systematic evaluation of what was a fairly unique process. The paper offers no evaluation of the working group or others like it that focus on questions of replicability, scale and sustainability.Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current work is a unique paper that focuses on situating multi-disciplinary practice within disaster risk management (DRM) and enhancing networks, capacities and expertise for professional education for engineers, physical and social scientists who are involved in research and practice. The polyvocal character of the presentation will help readers access the particular experiences of the participants, which reflect the deeply personal character of the subject matter.