From disaster response to disaster prevention | Rachel Kyte | TEDxSendai (English)

Summary

The speaker emphasizes the importance of resilience in the face of increasing natural disasters, highlighting the economic and human toll. They discuss the impact of climate change on disaster frequency and intensity, the need for greener and more inclusive growth, and the significance of disaster risk management in development. Examples from Japan and Saint Lucia illustrate successful resilience strategies, while the Port of Cartagena demonstrates private sector interest. The summary concludes with the assertion that resilience is a collective responsibility involving policy, investment, and community engagement.

Takeaways

• 👵 The speaker's definition of resilience is inspired by her grandmother's life, embodying toughness and generosity through various hardships.
• 🌾 The importance of preserving and utilizing resources efficiently, as demonstrated by the speaker's family during their harvest season, is highlighted.
• 🏨 The devastating impact of natural disasters, such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, is underscored to emphasize the need for resilience in infrastructure.
• 📈 Economic losses from natural disasters have tripled in the past 30 years, indicating an urgent need to address this growing issue.
• 💰 The staggering financial impact of natural disasters is compared to the GDP of Mexico and the amount of development assistance, highlighting the scale of the problem.
• 🌍 Climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, particularly affecting poor countries.
• 🏙 Rapid urbanization, especially in developing countries, will increase the number of people exposed to natural disasters.
• 🛠 The speaker advocates for a change in growth path towards greener and more inclusive development, integrating disaster risk management into policy and practice.
• 🏢 The private sector, as exemplified by the Port of Cartagena, is recognizing the benefits of investing in resilience to protect against climate-related risks.
• 🏘️ Community engagement and strong social bonds are vital for resilience, as they facilitate mutual support and recovery post-disaster.
• 🌐 The international community must shift from a reactive approach to disasters to a proactive culture of prevention and preparedness.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the speech given by the speaker?

The main topic of the speech is resilience, particularly in the context of natural disasters and the need for disaster risk management and preparedness.

Who is the speaker's earliest childhood memory associated with, and what activities were they involved in?

The speaker's earliest childhood memories are associated with their grandmother, great grandmother, and grandfather, who were involved in harvesting and preserving produce from their gardens and land to extend the nutritional and economic value through winter months.

What significant historical events did the speaker's grandmother experience in her lifetime?

The speaker's grandmother experienced the beginning of one World War, lived through a second World War, and survived polio.

What is the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an example of?

The Hotel Montana is an example of a building that was not built to resist the shock of a natural disaster, as it collapsed during the 2010 earthquake, killing over 200 people.

How have economic losses from natural disasters changed in the past 30 years?

In the past 30 years, economic losses from natural disasters have more than tripled, and the number of natural disasters has doubled.

What is the economic impact of natural disasters in low-income and middle-income countries over the past 30 years?

Over the past 30 years, low-income and middle-income countries have lost 1.2 trillion dollars due to natural disasters, which is equivalent to the annual GDP of Mexico or a third of all official development assistance given in the same period.

What is the projected increase in urban population by 2050, particularly in developing countries?

By 2050, the urban population is projected to increase by 2.6 billion people globally, with 90% of that growth occurring in South Asia and Africa.

How does the speaker suggest investing in resilience against natural disasters?

The speaker suggests investing in resilience by changing the growth path to a greener and more inclusive growth, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and integrating disaster risk management into development and public policy.

What is the significance of the Westin in Sendai as an example in the speech?

The Westin in Sendai is significant as it survived the catastrophic earthquake in 2011 with almost no damage, serving as a disaster response center, highlighting the effectiveness of enforced building codes and disaster risk management in Japan.

What percentage of international disaster-related assistance from 1980 to 2009 was invested in prevention and preparedness?

Only 3.6% of the international disaster-related assistance from 1980 to 2009 was invested in prevention and preparedness, with the majority going towards emergency response and reconstruction.

What is the example of a successful community resilience project mentioned in the speech?

The successful community resilience project mentioned is in Saint Lucia, where the World Bank invested in hillside drains to prevent landslides. This resulted in no losses in the five communities where the drains were built during Hurricane Tomas in 2010.

How did the Port of Cartagena in Colombia demonstrate private sector interest in resilience?

The Port of Cartagena demonstrated private sector interest in resilience by conducting a study with the International Finance Corporation to assess risks from climate and weather changes, leading to a 30 million dollar investment in new capital construction to improve resilience and operations.

What role do communities play in resilience, according to the speaker?

According to the speaker, communities play a crucial role in resilience as they have stronger social bonds that help them better withstand disasters. These bonds are one of the strongest determinants of community resilience, and neighbors are often the first to help in reconstruction after a disaster.

Outlines

00:00

👵 Resilience Through Generations and Natural Disasters

The speaker begins by introducing the concept of resilience, drawing on personal experiences with their grandmother, Nancy Staples, who exemplified toughness and generosity despite living through two world wars and surviving polio. The narrative shifts to discuss the increasing frequency and economic impact of natural disasters, highlighting the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the staggering statistics of losses and fatalities over the past 30 years. The speaker emphasizes the urgency of addressing resilience in the face of climate change, which disproportionately affects poor countries and is exacerbating existing crises such as food, water, and energy shortages. The urbanization trend and the lack of building codes are identified as significant challenges, with the poor being the most vulnerable to the consequences of natural disasters.

05:02

🏢 Investing in Resilience: Public and Private Sectors' Roles

This paragraph delves into the importance of investing in resilience, starting with the need for a change in growth paths towards greener and more inclusive models that mitigate and adapt to climate change. The speaker advocates for disaster risk management as an integral part of development and a defense against future uncertainties. Using the Westin hotel in Sendai as a case study, the effectiveness of enforcing building codes and disaster risk management in Japan is highlighted. The international community's current approach to disaster assistance is criticized for focusing too heavily on response rather than prevention. The speaker calls for a shift towards a culture of prevention and resilience, citing the success of a World Bank project in Saint Lucia that reduced landslide risks and saved costs. The private sector's role is also underscored, with an example from the Port of Cartagena, which invested in resilience to improve operations and gain a commercial advantage.

10:02

🌐 Community Resilience: Social Bonds and Collective Strength

The final paragraph emphasizes the role of communities in building resilience, particularly the significance of strong social bonds that enable better disaster outcomes. The speaker argues that resilience is not just a policy construct but a practical necessity that involves public policy, private investment, and international community support. It also highlights the importance of local leadership, particularly mayors, in navigating uncertain times. The speaker concludes by personalizing resilience as a combination of top-down policy and investment, as well as bottom-up community building, suggesting that resilience is fundamentally about the connections that unite individuals.

Keywords

💡Resilience

Resilience refers to the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. In the context of the video, it is a central theme illustrating the capacity to bounce back from adversities such as natural disasters. The speaker uses the example of her grandmother to embody resilience through her toughness and generosity, having lived through wars and survived polio.

💡Natural Disasters

Natural disasters are catastrophic events caused by natural processes of the Earth, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods. The video emphasizes the increasing frequency and economic impact of these events, with a 30-year analysis revealing tripled economic losses and doubled occurrences. The script also highlights the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake and the Hotel Montana's collapse as a stark example.

💡Economic Loss

Economic loss in this context refers to the financial impact caused by natural disasters, which has significantly increased over the past 30 years. The script provides specific figures, stating a loss of 1.2 trillion dollars in low-income and middle-income countries alone, which is equivalent to Mexico's annual GDP or a third of all official development assistance during the same period.

💡Climate Change

Climate change is the long-term alteration of weather patterns, causing more extreme weather events. The video discusses how climate change exacerbates the challenges faced by poor countries, contributing to food, water, and energy crises, and increasing the uncertainty and intensity of natural disasters.

💡Urbanization

Urbanization is the process of migration from rural to urban areas, leading to rapid growth in city populations. The script projects that by 2050, the number of people exposed to natural disasters in urban settings will double to over 1.5 billion, primarily due to the lack of enforced building codes and the concentration of growth in developing regions like South Asia and Africa.

💡Disaster Risk Management

Disaster risk management involves strategies and actions to reduce the potential harm from natural hazards. The video advocates for its integration into development plans and as a defense against future uncertainties. The speaker contrasts the collapsed Hotel Montana with the Westin in Sendai, which survived an earthquake due to effective disaster risk management in Japan.

💡Prevention and Preparedness

Prevention and preparedness are proactive measures taken to avoid or mitigate the effects of disasters. The script criticizes the international community for investing only 3.6% of disaster-related assistance in these areas, urging a shift towards a culture of prevention and resilience instead of focusing primarily on emergency response and reconstruction.

💡Community

Community refers to a group of people living in the same place or having common interests. The video underscores the importance of community strength and social bonds in disaster resilience, noting that communities with such bonds fare better during crises. The speaker's personal connection to resilience is also tied to the community bonds established by her grandmother.

💡Private Sector

The private sector encompasses businesses and corporations that operate independently of government control. The script discusses the role of the private sector in investing in resilience, using the Port of Cartagena as an example of a company that undertook a risk assessment and invested in infrastructure improvements to enhance resilience.

💡Public Policy

Public policy is the set of decisions and actions taken by governments to address public problems. The video calls for public policy frameworks that support disaster risk management and the development of a culture of resilience, suggesting that every country can take steps to invest in their own resilience.

💡International Community

The international community represents the collective of nations and global organizations. The script criticizes the current approach of the international community, which offers assistance too little and too late, and calls for a change in the allocation of disaster-related assistance towards prevention and preparedness.

Highlights

Introduction to the concept of resilience through the speaker's personal story and the image of her grandmother.

The importance of preserving nutritional and economic value from gardens and land, especially for supporting poorer community members during winter.

The speaker's grandmother as a symbol of resilience, having lived through two world wars and survived polio.

The devastation of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the collapse of the Hotel Montana, highlighting the lack of disaster resistance in building structures.

The alarming increase in economic losses and the number of natural disasters over the past 30 years.

The staggering financial impact of natural disasters on low-income and middle-income countries, equivalent to Mexico's annual GDP.

The comparison of disaster losses to wasted overseas development aid, emphasizing the need for better resource allocation.

The shocking death toll from natural disasters over the past 30 years, equivalent to the population of Namibia.

The challenges of climate change on poor countries, exacerbating existing crises in food, water, and energy.

The projected increase in urban populations, particularly in developing countries, and the implications for disaster exposure.

The critical need for building codes and enforcement to protect against the increasing risk of natural disasters in urban areas.

The two key ways to invest in resilience: changing growth paths and investing in disaster risk management.

The example of the Westin in Sendai, Japan, as a model of effective disaster risk management in building codes and public policy.

The international community's disproportionate spending on disaster response versus prevention and preparedness.

The success story of Saint Lucia's community resilience investment, preventing landslides and saving on disaster response costs.

The Port of Cartagena's proactive approach to climate risk assessment and investment in resilience for operational improvement.

The importance of strong social bonds within communities for disaster resilience and the role of local leaders.

The speaker's personal view of resilience as a combination of top-down policy, investment, and bottom-up community building.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Isabel Pozas González Reviewer: Capa Girl

Good morning everybody.

It's my great pleasure to be here today

and I would like to talk to you about resilience.

This is a picture of my grandmother, my maternal grandmother,

Nancy Staples and she's leaning on the gate

at the end of our gardens and the land

that we worked two generations ago.

My earliest childhood memories are of her

and my great grandmother and my grandfather

particularly at this time of the year

trying to eke out every ounce of nutricional value

and economic value from our gardens and from the land.

It was a time to harvest but it was a time to

preserve, to jam, to pickle in any shape, way or form,

that nutritional value so we could take the bounty of

the summer and extend it for us, our family

but also for the poorer members of

he community around through the winter months.

She was born at the beginning of one world war

lived through a second, and survived polio.

She was tough, and when I think about resilience

I think about her, her generosity,

her toughness and many like her in that generation.

But let's talk about resilience today.

This is a picture of the Hotel Montana

taken in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

just after the devastating earthquake in 2010.

As you can see, it pancaked

killing 200 people or more as it did so.

It simply wasn't built to resist the shock.

Today we have to be more concerned

about natural disasters than ever before.

In the past 30 years the economic losses

from natural disasters have more than tripled.

The number of natural disasters has actually doubled.

Let's look at the numbers.

Over the past 30 years,

in low-income and middle-income countries alone

we have lost 1.2 trillion dollars due to damage.

That is equivalent to the GDP annually of Mexico.

Another way to think of it is that it is equivalent

to a third of all the official development assistance

that we've given in the same time period.

So think, that for every three dollars of

overseas development aid that we've given,

we've taken one and thrown it away.

In the same period, the same 30 years,

2.3 million people have perished.

That's the population of Namibia.

This is something that we need to pay attention to.

And it's getting more difficult.

Climate change is ravaging especially poor countries.

Already this is not a phenomena for the future,

it's for us today.

Already countries are trying to work their way through the complex nexus

between a food crisis, a water crisis and an energy crisis

and climate change is just making it more difficult

and raising uncertainty.

At the same time, over the next 40 years

we will add 2.6 billion people to the cities of the world

most of that in developing countries.

In fact, 90% of that growth will be in South Asia and Africa.

And, between now and 2050, we will double the number of

people exposed to cyclones, and mudslides

and collapse as a result of natural disasters

in urban settings to more than 1.5 billion people.

The lack of building codes, the lack of

enforced building codes, will punish these people.

And it will be the poor, for it is always the poor,

the most vulnerable that will suffer most.

So think of the story that we are beginning to understand.

We have more and more disasters.

Their intensity is being developed by climate change.

Climate change is adding to uncertainty

and we have a path of urbanization

that this civilization has never seen before.

How do we invest in our resilience?

Well, there are two key ways.

First of all, we actually have to change our growth path.

We need to move to a greener and more inclusive growth now.

Every country can start on that journey

we must mitigate and adapt to climate change.

At the same time, we need to invest in disaster risk management.

Disaster risk management must be part of development.

But it must also be considered a first line of defence

against the uncertainty that is coming tomorrow.

We need action in the public sector

we need frameworks in public policy

we need awareness and investment in the private sector

and we need civil society and communities to engage.

Now, I talked to you earlier on about the hotel in Haiti

the Hotel Montana, that had pancaked, that had collapsed --

this is where we are today, this is the Westin in Sendai

a gorgeous 37 storey hotel that survived

the catastrophic earthquake on March 11th, 2011,

the great Japan earthquake,

with almost no damage at all.

In fact it served as a disaster response centre.

Disaster risk management is in the building code in Japan

disaster risk management in the building code is enforced in Japan.

Disaster risk management is part of the curricula in schools in Japan

and disaster risk management, not disaster

is part of the public discourse, here in Japan.

So, every country, every government, can take steps now,

no matter where they are on the development trajectory,

to try to start to invest in their own resilience.

But there is much more that can be done by

the international community as well.

Often, we offer too little, too late.

Between 1980 and 2009, the international community

spent 90 billion US dollars on disaster-related assistance.

But of that 90 billion, only 3.6%

was invested in prevention and preparedness.

The other 96% plus was invested in emergency

response and reconstruction.

We have to change those numbers.

We have to switch that graph around.

In fact, we have to move from a tradition of response

to a culture of prevention, a culture of resilience.

But let me give you an example of what does seem to start working.

This is the island of Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean

a small island developing state buffeted by storms

and hurricanes where landslides are,

unfortunately far too often, part of the rhythm of life there.

In 2008, the World Bank, working with 5 communities on the island

started to try to invest in the resilience of these communities

and their ability to withstand and to avoid landslides.

And we built these hillside drains.

In 2010, when Hurricane Tomas hit the island

unfortunately many communities suffered the landslides

that are so often part of the rhythm of life there

but the five communities where these hillside drains

had been built suffered no losses at all.

It's important to understand the economics of this project as well.

For every dollar that the community invested in these drains

it saved another three dollars that it would have had

to spend on response and on reconstruction

if they had not taken the steps towards preparedness.

So, if disaster risk resilience seems to make

such economic and business sense

is the private sector interested?

Is the private sector investing?

Well, the good news is that leaders are.

This is a picture of the Port of Cartagena, in Colombia

which is operated by a private firm, Muelles de Bosque

on a long term government concession.

Recently they undertook a study together with

the International Finance Corporation the private sector

lending arm of the World Bank where they looked at

the risks to the port operating environment from

changes in climate and changes in weather pattern.

What was interesting was that

in order to get the data for the report

they had to go to 30 different public and private sources

which shows that there is much to be done to make

the data and awareness of these issues

more available to public and private sector alike.

But the report resulted in recommendations

from changing the dredging regime

for the way that ships approach the port

to drainage to onside land operations.

So, for example, changing the heights of roads

and things like this.

And as a result of those recommendations

Muelles de Bosque invested 30 million dollars

in new capital construction

in order to make them more resilient

in order to improve their operations going forward.

So this port company was able to see the benefit

from investing in their ability to be resilient going forward

and that this was a commercial advantage to them.

So I've talked about the public sector

and I've talked about the private sector

and now we need to talk about community.

We know empirically that communities that have

stronger social bonds do better in disaster.

We know that in fact those strong social bonds

are one of the strongest determinants

of resilience within the community.

I mean, it makes intuitive sense

neighbours know which neighbour needs help

which neighbour is vulnerable

which neighbour is weakest.

We also know that families, neighbours and friends

are the ones that help reconstruct first after disaster has hit.

And so when we think of resilience

this is not an adapt construct

it's not just a word

that is thrown around in development circles.

Resilience is, both, the need for public policy

and the need for private investment.

It's also about a different response from the international community

and it is about the local municipal leaders

the mayors that we elect

to lead us through these uncertain times.

But resilience, very importantly, is about community.

I think the people of Japan know that.

I think that my grandmother

her friends and others in our community

when I was growing up knew that too.

And so, for me personally, when I think of resilience

I think of top-down policy and investment flows

but I think of bottom-up building of community.

For me, resilience is about you and me

and the bonds that bring us together.

Thank you.

(Applause)