Disaster risk reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals: Pre-disaster governance for integrated management in Canada and Australia

Jonathan Raikes

doi:10.25907/00126

In 2015, United Nations Member States established the 2030 Global Development Agenda that aims to address challenges relating to disaster risk, sustainable human development, and climate change. Together, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement provide a global framework for addressing increasing disaster risks from extreme weather and climate events (e.g., floods and droughts) by mobilizing governments to take a more proactive and holistic approach to disaster risk management, human development, and climate risk management. As such, disaster risk reduction has become a central component to human development and climate risk management, and vice versa. This more holistic perspective to disaster risk reduction challenges historic notions of disaster risk management which has emphasised structural control measures and largely ignored the pre-disaster context of disaster planning and preparedness. This thesis explores the intersection between disaster risk reduction and human development – as illustrated using the Sustainable Development Goals – in pre-disaster management for floods and droughts in Canada and Australia. The research includes a comparative case study analysis of: (1) the governance landscape for disaster risk management in both countries; (2) government practitioners’ perceptions on the potential integration of disaster risk management and human development in governance; (3) flood and drought risk management policies and practices; and (4) the influence of the 2030 Global Development Agenda in domestic disaster risk management policy and practice. The research for this thesis involved a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis that included two Delphi studies, semi-structured interviews, and document analyses of disaster management policies and legislation concerning flood and drought risk management in each country. It was found that an integrated approach between disaster risk management and human development challenges the conceptual boundaries of, and requirements for, public policy and administration. Where disaster risk management has traditionally focused on the exposure to natural hazards and acceptable risk, government practitioners viewed that an integrated approach requires a people-centred approach to disaster management that reflects the capacities and vulnerabilities of individuals and populations. Although it was evident that disaster risk reduction policies and the willingness of government practitioners to engage with such approaches are evolving, the efficacy of these approaches in disaster risk management policy and practice is largely constrained by governance systems and structures that are struggling to keep pace with new knowledge and demands. Accordingly, how societies reorganize and adjust, and at which scales, are likely to determine future disaster losses. Global agreements – including those comprising the 2030 Global Development Agenda – provide a blueprint for transformative change within this space; however, their utility in Canadian and Australian disaster risk management is largely limited by deeply rooted political and structural challenges. As a result, it was found that global agreements provide improved political and public salience of complex policy problems – such as those related to disaster risk reduction – but the prospective challenge is in mobilizing these agreements across socio-political scales, from local to national levels. This thesis makes several contributions to disaster risk reduction discourse in the context of extreme weather and climate-related hazards, particularly in relation to the integration of disaster risk management and human development. It also contributes to knowledge by investigating the influence of international agreements in facilitating transformative change within developed countries’ disaster risk management systems and structures. As disaster risk from extreme weather and climate events continues to accelerate in response to global processes, it is only by understanding these wider systems, knowledge, and interactions that disaster risk management will be improved, and disaster risk reduction realised.

Disaster risk reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals: Pre-disaster governance for integrated management in Canada and Australia

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