Questions/Answers

“Leave No One Behind Disasters” Disasters hurt the poor and vulnerable the most. According to the World Bank’s report in 2016, low-income countries account for more than 70% of the world’s disaster ‘hotspots’, and the world’s poor, one-third of whom live in multi-hazard zones, are the most vulnerable. Since 1980, low-income countries have accounted for only 9% of disaster events but 48% of the fatalities. One of the main causes of this differentiated impact of disasters is low accessibility to disaster related information. In times of disasters, while even a minute is critical to avoid danger, most of the poor and vulnerable groups of people do not have an access to channels to get early warnings. For example, when dam collapse occurred in Lao PDR in 2018, thousands of residents who could not afford to have communication devices or services were unaware of what was happening at the upper reaches of a river, which caused hundreds of casualties. The project ‘Construction of Forecasting and Warning System for Disaster Risk Reduction’ aims to establish a flood early warning system that anyone can easily have an access to; keeps everyone in the loop of social protection; and thereby leaves no one behind disasters. This project tries to achieve the goal through three main activities: 1) engage local community members in the project and form a joint working group to make collaborative efforts; 2) monitor water level and rainfall in upstream areas and provide the whole community with flood early warnings through warning posts when it reaches a dangerous condition; 3) educate local communities about the system and emergency action plans to enhance their own capability on disaster risk reduction. In this way, this project provides an equal opportunity for all community members to gain disaster-related information and reduce the impacts of disasters.

This project provides inclusive and equitable disaster early warning service. Basically, warning posts are set up in communities around a flood prone area. With eight gigantic loudspeakers, it delivers emergency messages and alert sound that cover the whole community. This enables community members to equally have access to early warning information. In many cases, people who cannot afford to get communication devices or services become isolated; face disasters without an advance notice; and miss the critical time to save their lives. This project attempts to reduce such inequality in disaster information acquisition, so as to fulfill collaborative response against disasters.

This project is directly related to two SDGs, (11) ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’ and (13) ‘Climate Action’. Firstly, through the early warning system, especially in areas with poverty, this project has significantly reduced the number of casualties by providing early warnings ahead of occurrence of disasters. Secondly, against frequent water-related disasters caused by climate change, this project particularly focuses on flooding and equips vulnerable communities with flood monitoring and early warning system, which strengthens resilience and capacity to climate-related hazards and disasters. Thirdly, this project includes education programs for local communities. Those education programs raise residents’ awareness about disaster risks and improve human and institutional capability on disaster risk reduction. This project is also closely associated with SDG (1) ‘No Poverty’ in the long term. By providing the poor and those in vulnerable situations with equal opportunity to have access to early warning service, this project keeps such alienated groups of people in the loop of social protection; reduces their exposure to disasters that accelerate a vicious circle of poverty; and fosters a safer and more resilient community for prosperity.

Socially, this project was initiated based on the national recognition of the importance of international cooperation on disaster risk reduction. Especially, the law ‘Framework Act on International Development Cooperation’ of Korea has been a strong driving force to continue this project. Economically, with the legal basis, since 2013, the project budget has been constantly increased. Furthermore, the early warning system of this project is operated by solar power, and thus it requires almost ‘zero operation cost’. Environmentally, unlike many other disaster mitigation methods such as levees and seawalls, the early warning system would not affect the environment.

Despite of frequent natural disasters, the progress on preparedness for such disasters is slow. Particularly, when it comes to early warning service, many small vulnerable communities are often neglected. While people living in an urban area have various channels including cell phones, TVs, and radios to get disaster-related information, those living in an area with poverty mostly depend on word of mouth. Such inequality in disaster information acquisition brings about differentiated impact of disasters on our society-most casualties, injuries, and damages are concentrated in the poor-which intensifies a vicious circle of poverty. This project pursues to provide all community members with an equal accessibility to universal equitable, and easily accessible disaster-related information service. The community based early warning system, though simple, plays a vital role to provide timely warnings to everyone in the most vulnerable communities and save lives. To make this possible, this project tries to enhance the capabilities of local governments on flood forecasting by operating monitoring system in the upper reaches of target areas, which substantially increases accuracy and speed of issuing early warning. Through the whole system, this project contributes to supplementing shortfalls of public service, especially for those excluded from social protection.

This project contributes to reducing the differentiated impact of disasters on men and women by offering equal accessibility to disaster information regardless of gender. In general, women tend to have more limited access to physical, technological, and social assets. Since many women become isolated at home due to conservative gender roles, taking care of babies and doing house chores while men do social activities, they get less informed and more vulnerable to disasters. This project has increased women's accessibility to disaster information by delivering early warnings to their living spaces and education programs, which improved women's rights to safety.

Those living in poverty and flood prone areas are the main target group of this project. Since 2013, the National Disaster Management Research Institute (NDMI) of Ministry of the Interior and Safety has been implementing flood early warning system in low-income countries such as the Philippines, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. This project has been especially beneficial for people living in the poorest and flood prone areas, who had limited access to communication channels. Through the community based warning posts, this project has significantly reduced the number of casualties by issuing alerts at least 20 to 30 minutes ahead of occurrence of flooding. In 2017, when typhoon ‘TEMBIN’(VINTA) hit Mindanao Island of the Philippines, this project greatly contributed to protecting the community by alerting residents in advance and securing the time to evacuate. Such efforts resulted in ‘zero casualty’ and most of people who received help from the system were the poor. Contrary to this outstanding achievement, this same area ‘Cagayan de Oro city’ of Mindanao Island previously suffered over 690 casualties from the similar typhoon ‘WASHI’ in 2011. From this dramatic change and achievement, NDMI was honored to receive a letter of appreciation from the Philippine government.

NDMI initiated this project in 2013 by the request from the Philippine government after typhoon 'WASHI' swept through Mindanao island and brought about 694 casualties in 2012. NDMI began to implement this project in Cagayan de Oro city of Mindanao island, which was continued until 2015. Starting from 2016, NDMI has implemented the same project in Lao PDR and Vietnam up to now, and is planning to focus on Lao PDR in 2021. The implementation process of this project consists of three steps. Firstly, NDMI conducts field surveys and topographical/hydrological analysis to find target areas for installation of flood early warning system. In this stage, NDMI involves diverse participants including officials, scholars, residents, and engineers in a decision making process to choose an optimal place. Secondly, after deciding a target area, flood early warning system is established. NDMI installs water level and rainfall gauges in the upper reaches of the target area as well as warning posts in nearby communities. When water level or precipitation reaches a certain dangerous condition, those warning posts can be activated automatically or manually to alert residents. Lastly, education on the system and emergency action plans are offered to the local community to prepare for future disasters. After these three steps, the local government takes over the authority to operate the system and establishes all-embracing local disaster response system. Also, every year, NDMI conducts an evaluation of the project to access the performance, outcomes, and satisfaction of the project. The evaluation of the project is performed by external experts such as university professors and researchers specialized in international development. Those experts are deployed to the field of the project countries-Lao PDR and Vietnam in 2019-and survey officials and the local community. The results is officially published and opened to the public.

The main obstacle was the discrepancy between central and local government in terms of the level of interest and capability in disaster risk reduction. Often, local governments would not be interested in disaster preparedness due to limited budget and expertise, which would make their capability weaker. To overcome such obstacle, NDMI formed 'A joint working group' that consisted of officials from different levels of government. Through active interaction, participants got to recognize needs and shortfalls; learn from each other, and come up with long term sustainable support plans. This highly encouraged local governments to participate and increased the project effectiveness.

This project provides the poor and most vulnerable groups of people with an easily accessible early warning service. Despite of numerous efforts on disaster risk reduction in the world, poverty area and flood prone areas are still mostly affected by disasters and excluded from social protection. NDMI would be convinced that such differentiated impact stems from the inequality in information acquisition. Through community based warning posts in the poorest area without any high technology, this project offers equal opportunities and rights to gain disaster information and saves lives.

When the Indian Ocean tsunami hit in 2004, there was one little child who learned about tsunami risks and told people to run toward higher ground. This small action saved almost the entire population of 83,000 on Simeulue Island, just 40 km from the epicenter of the earthquake, while over 250,000 people were killed throughout Asia from the tsunami. This impressive story became a motive to initiate this project. The idea of early warning system and disaster education could be simple, but is definitely a powerful too to save lives, just like the child's small action.

N/A

This project has been implemented in various cities in Southeast Asia. From 2013 to 2015, NDMI undertook the project in Cagayan de Oro city of Mindanao Island, the Philippines. Starting from 2016, by extending this project, NDMI launched the same project in two countries-Lao PDR and Vietnam. In Lao PDR, the target areas were Vangvieng(2016), Udomxai(2017-2019), and Bolikhamxai(2019). In Vietnam, the target areas were Lao Cai(2016-2017) and Yen Bai(2018-2019). Those areas were flood pron areas populated largely by the poor. For such communities, NDMI built community based early warning systems and provided education programs on the system and emergency action plans. Those project were mainly initiated by a request from a recipient country and NDMI's own preliminary feasibility study. In case of the Philippines, devastating impact on Mindanao Island from typhoon 'WASHI' led the Philippine government to send a request to NDMI. After receiving the request, NDMI conducted the preliminary feasibility study on several areas vulnerable to flooding to choose optimal project areas where flood early warning system would be installed. To carry out the project, it involved countless collaborative efforts from diverse participants including officials, local community members, researchers, and engineers throughout the whole process.

N/A

As a national institute where over 200 researchers conduct research on disaster management technologies and policies, NDMI has various experts in disaster risk reduction. Such workforces, expertise, and technology are the first resources for this project. Also, NDMI has partnerships with university researchers and engineering companies that support evaluations and installation. Most of all, the joint working group including local officials and communities is the key resource for successful implementation. Funding source of this project is the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget of Korea. From national awareness on the importance of international cooperation, this budget has been constantly increased.

Firstly, this project is supported by the law ‘Framework Act on International Development Cooperation’ of Korea. With this legal basis, since 2013, the project budget has been constantly increased and NDMI is already planning to extend this project in Lao PDR, the Philippines and Republic of Fiji for the upcoming 3 years. Secondly, all of early warning system including warning posts and monitoring equipment of this project are basically operated by solar power, which requires almost ‘zero operation cost’. Thirdly, this project includes training and follow-up maintenance support. Hence, this project is practical as well as sustainable.

Si

On a yearly basis, NDMI conducts the evaluation to assess the performance, outcomes, and satisfaction of the project, which is obligatory based on the Framework Act on International Development Cooperation. Specifically, at the end of the year, the external experts such as university professors and researchers specialized in evaluation of international development projects are deployed to target areas. They conduct a survey of local officials and communities on satisfaction regarding the whole process of the project. The result comes out as points – maximum 100 points – and is officially published and opened to the public.

In the evaluation, five evaluation criteria were applied by the evaluation standard of OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). These five evaluation criteria include Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Impact, and Sustainability. Each criterion has equal weight and consists of three to five questions related to the project. For example, the index of ‘Relevance’ assess whether this project complies with the development necessity, object, strategy, and national priority of the recipient country. (Further details are in the attached evaluation report)

The results of the evaluation came out as 93 points in 2017 and 95.3 points in 2018 out of 100, which were somewhat satisfactory in both Vietnam and Lao PDR. However, the main findings from each country were quite different and informed NDMI of things to improve. For example, in Vietnam, the index of ‘Efficiency’ was relatively lower than other indexes in 2018. It was because the customs process took much longer than expected and delayed the whole process. From this lesson, NDMI started equipment shipment a month earlier in 2019 and was able to complete installment as planned. In Lao PDR, the index of ‘Sustainability’ was relatively lower in 2018. One of the main reasons was that the local officials experienced difficulties to operate the system by themselves. This led NDMI to increase and diversify the education program in 2019. For instance, NDMI visited the local communities multiple times and actually operated the system with officials at the field and office. Also, by engaging residents in a drill, NDMI increased the practicality of training. The results of evaluation have shown characteristics of each project country; provided pertinent solutions; and thus continuously improved this project. Question 10

This project involves almost every aspect of collaborative work across different levels of government. At the national level, project partner countries and the Republic of Korea sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in an equal and cooperative relationship, which becomes a driving force to initiate this project. Once the project is initiated, NDMI forms a joint working group that consists of province/state and city/county officials as well as community members. Each participant group plays different roles, and works in a horizontal way rather than vertical. More specifically, NDMI strives to open up conversations between participants and this led them to give opinions with their own perspective. Community members introduce needs from their community and provide local vulnerability information. Also, city/county officials let other participants know the challenges that the local government has faced to prepare residents for disasters. Province/state officials suggest available financial, human and institutional support. NDMI actively promotes these interactions and comes up with long term and joint management plans to make this project sustainable. Throughout the whole process, such collaborative efforts have greatly contributed to establishing inter-governmental cooperation system and encouraging the local government officials and community members to voluntarily participate in this project.

From the beginning of the project, NDMI formed a ‘Joint Working Group’ that consisted of province/state and city/county officials as well as community members. Through this joint working group, every activity related to designing, implementing and evaluating the project was performed together. Firstly, to design the project, NDMI conducted a field survey with province and county officials. In the case of Lao PDR, officials from the headquarters, province and county branch of Department of Meteorology and Hydrology jointly participated in the field survey and made a collective decision on a target area which was Bolikhamxai in 2019. Secondly, to implement the project, NDMI visited the target area and collected information and opinions from the local community. In Vietnam, NDMI held an open information session and invited community members to discuss local issues and gather suggestions. Also, at that point, the contents of an education program were decided by reflecting the interests, needs and demographic characteristics suggested by the community. Thirdly, to improve this project, the joint working group also took part in the evaluation process and provided feedback on the project through a satisfaction survey. By activating the joint working group throughout the whole process, NDMI promoted stakeholders’ participation.

Since 2013, NDMI has been implementing this project in various regions. Though the geographic locations were different for each project, there was one common feature between them, which was a group of people still left behind disasters. Poverty deprived them of opportunities to have access to disaster related information. It caused countless casualties and intensified a vicious circle of poverty. Seeing the contrasting result achieved by the early warning system in Mindanao Island of the Philippines, the community based early warning system could be one of the main keys to alleviate such issues and protect the poor. As emphasized by SDGs and Sendai Framework, setting up disaster early warning system could considerably reduce the impact of disasters and enhance local capability on disaster risk reduction, especially in areas with poverty. The NDMI’s blueprint for the future is to diversify the types of early warning system. As of now, this project provides only flood early warning system. However, people are suffering from many different natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis all around the world. For this reason, NDMI has been developing diverse technologies against disasters and is planning to provide various types of early warning system through this project.