Participatory disaster risk reduction in developing countries

Abstract

As conventional Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in developing countries fails to create a real and long-lasting impact, a more community-based approach has emerged. However, even this approach struggles to be truly empowering and sustainable. On the other hand, participatory design has emerged as a design approach seeking empowering outcomes. This paper investigates the question if and how researchers and designers can utilize participatory design methods and strategies to improve collaboration with local communities and to reach meaningful and feasible outcomes. Following the introduction, the paper presents main concepts of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) and Participatory Design (PD) in a literature review including case studies from developing countries in section two. Focusing on interactions between internal local and external organizational stakeholders, some theoretical suggestions on how organizations could improve their CBDRR practices are provided as well. Section three presents a case of social inclusion and disaster management in a local community in Nepal, conducted in Autumn 2019, and reflects on findings from section two in a real-life setting. Section four summarizes findings and gives an outlook to further research and practice. Conclusively, Participatory Design seems helpful to avoid common pitfalls in collaborative planning and development, and to reach more meaningful and empowering solutions for both design teams and local stakeholders. It is however difficult to estimate the real impact these solutions have over time and in different contexts. One reason for this might be that connecting DRR, CBDRR and PD is still in its infancy and needs more attention in terms of conceptual research as well as practical testing.