Present Crisis in Sri Lanka:

Disasters, Disaster Management & Future Opportunities

By Rajindra Rohitha
29.07.2022
What’s ongoing in Sri Lanka?

• How do you define it?

Where are we now? Where are we heading?
• Is that only a Political crisis?
• Is that an economic crisis?
• Is that a financial crisis?
• Is that a law and order crisis?
• Is that a disaster or a humanitarian crisis?

• What is your opinion?

WFP Sit-Rep (22.07.2022) says:

The economic crisis has put K.M. Aridayasa and his family on
their knees. Fuel prices prevent him from powering his water
pumps nor rent a plough to till his fields. Without chemical
fertilizers, pests have wreaked havoc on his crops, cutting his
yields in half. © WFP/Josh Estey
WFP Sit-Rep (06.07.2022) says:
• The population continues to feel the brunt of the
economic and food crises. About 3 in 10
households (6.26 million people) are food
insecure, 65,600 of which are severely food
insecure, according to WFP’s latest food security
assessment.
• • Food inflation is alarmingly high at 57.4 percent
in June 2022. Steeply increasing food prices have
crippled the population’s ability to put sufficient
and nutritious food on the table.
• • The majority of assessed households (61 percent)
are regularly employing food-based coping
strategies such as eating less preferred and less
nutritious food, and reducing the amount of food
they eat. Two in five households are not
consuming adequate diets.
• • The food security situation is worst among
people living in the estate sector, where more than
half of households are food insecure. In all
measures of food insecurity and coping strategies,
these households have consistently poorer
outcomes than urban and rural populations. While
urban households are depleting savings to cope for
now, estate populations are already turning to
credit to purchase food and other necessities.
• • An estimated 200,000 households are using
emergency livelihood coping strategies that are
likely to severely impact their medium- to long-
term capacity for income-generating activities.
WFP anticipates that even more people will turn to
these coping strategies as the crisis deepens.
• • Schools and government offices are closed until
further notice due to the scarcity in oil supply.
Let’s have a look at disasters

• Disaster: (UNDRR Definition)

• A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any
scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure,
vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human,
material, economic and environmental losses and impacts.

• The effect of the disaster can be immediate and localized, but is often
widespread and could last for a long period of time. The effect may test or
exceed the capacity of a community or society to cope using its own
resources, and therefore may require assistance from external sources,
which could include neighbouring jurisdictions, or those at the national or
international levels.
Formulaic Definitions

• Disaster = hazard x vulnerability /capacity

• Risk = impact (negative consequences) x probability (likelihood of an

event)
•R=IxP
Hazard, Vulnerability and Capacity

• Hazards: A process, • Biological hazards

phenomenon or human activity • Environmental hazards
that may cause loss of life, injury
or other health impacts, • Geological or geophysical
property damage, social and hazards
economic disruption or • Hydrometeorological hazards
environmental degradation. • Technological hazards
• Natural Hazards
• Anthropogenic Hazards
• Socionatural Harads
Hazards, Vulnerability and capacity
Vulnerability
• The conditions determined by
physical, social, economic and
environmental factors or processes
which increase the susceptibility of
an individual, a community, assets
or systems to the impacts of
hazards.
Capacity
• The combination of all the
strengths, attributes and resources
available within an organization,
community or society to manage
and reduce disaster risks and
strengthen resilience.
• Capacity may include
infrastructure, institutions, human
knowledge and skills, and collective
attributes such as social
relationships, leadership and
management.
Capacity Development & Resilience
• Capacity development is the process by
which people, organizations and society
systematically stimulate and develop their
capacities over time to achieve social and
economic goals. It is a concept that
extends the term of capacity-building to
encompass all aspects of creating and
sustaining capacity growth over time.
• It involves learning and various types of
training, but also continuous efforts to
develop institutions, political awareness,
financial resources, technology systems
and the wider enabling environment.
Resilience
• The ability of a system, community or
society exposed to hazards to resist,
absorb, accommodate, adapt to,
transform and recover from the effects of
a hazard in a timely and efficient manner,
including through the preservation and
restoration of its essential basic
structures and functions through risk
management.
• “the ability of households /communities
/country to adopt /internalize the
negative impacts of adversities /
externalities without compromising their
progress/advancement in social and
economic well-being”.
We are in a Humanitarian Emergency/Humanitarian Disaster

• So what should be our actions? • Disaster Management

• Our response? • Strengthen the Capacities
- Natural
- Physical
- Human
- Social
- Finance/Economic
- Governance
 Stages of the Disaster Management Cycle

Reconstruction

Risk
Restoration of
After Infrastructure
Assessment &
Planning
Before
& Services
the the
Event Event
Emergency
Management Pre-Impact
& Operations Activities

EVENT
Impact
Relationship of Relief and Development

Development Relief
Risk reduction into
development
• On-going chronic needs • Acute emergency needs
• Longer-term causes of for relief/recovery
disaster • Short-term effects of
• Sustainable livelihoods Developmental approaches under-development
• Preventative measures Into relief activities • Reactive measures
What Can We Do?
Relief Recovery Development
Actions/Proposals Actions/Proposals Actions/Proposals
What you need to Consider

Hazards
Context
Timing in relation to disasters
Funding cycles/Donor interest
Relief vs. development
Political sensitivities