Disaster risk management and role of Pakistan's corporate sector ...

Disaster Risk Management and Role of Pakistan’s Corporate Sector

Syed Aamir Abbas

Sahban Zafar Ali

Engineering Management Department Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering Islamabad, Pakistan [email protected]

Department of Engineering Management Centre for Advanced Studies in Engineering Islamabad, Pakistan [email protected]

Dr. Nadeem Ehsan

Ebtisam Mirza



Muhammad Wasim Bhatti Department of Engineering Management Centre for Advanced Studies in Engineering Islamabad, Pakistan [email protected] Abstract—Disasters, both natural and manmade, of colossal proportions have continued to beleaguer Pakistan especially over the last 3 decades. Response of the government agencies and that of the general community has improved with time but still can be best described as “reactive”. In the aftermath of the devastating 2005 earthquake corporate sector played its role as a key partner in disaster management. However, corporate sectors role has always been limited to contributions in the post disaster management efforts. The corporate sector possesses huge resources– human, material, technical and financial – and has significant presence in every region of the country. If effectively planned and encouraged the corporate sector can play a significant role in all the three phases i.e. Pre-disaster, disaster and post-disaster. This paper focuses on approaches executives can take to join forces with the relief organizations. A holistic strategy has been devised, that provides an effective framework of cooperation between the corporate sector and disaster management agencies for dealing with all the three disaster management phases. The study consists of discussions with the team leaders and members of disaster management agencies along with representatives of the corporate sector who had been actively involved in coordinating relief activities. Three major areas of public-private cooperation and partnership decisions have been identified over the life cycle of disaster management process i.e. awareness generation, disaster preparedness and mitigation planning for better disaster management. Keywords-corporate partnerships; Pakistan

sector;

disaster

I.

INTRODUCTION

Disasters, both natural and manmade, of colossal proportions have continued to beleaguer Pakistan and its surrounding regions. Pakistan has been at risk to various types of natural disasters of which cyclones, flooding, landslides, earthquakes and drought are more common. During its history the floods of 1950, 1992 and 1998 resulted in a large number of deaths and severe loss of property, valued at an estimated $1.3 billion whereas the droughts of 2000-2002 are estimated to have cost economic losses of about $ 2.5 billion [1]. Likewise wars in the past, the soviet conflict in Afghanistan and now the recent military offensives along the Pak-Afghan border alone have resulted in displacement of nearly 2 million people that has again required a massive relief effort from the government, the international community and relief agencies. Pakistan is also located in a seismically active zone on account of its proximity to the Indo-Australian and Eurasian plates. This vulnerability was proven on 8 October, 2005 when Pakistan was struck by the most devastating earthquake in her history. Affecting an area of some 30,000 sq. km, largely in Azad Kashmir and the North-West Frontier Province, the earthquake caused over 73,000 deaths, left many more people seriously injured, and destroyed homes, schools, hospitals and infrastructure on a massive scale. The response of private sector donors was overwhelming in cash and kind in the wake of this earthquake. The contribution of private donors to the earthquake relief effort can be gauged both from the numbers involved and the goods and services they provided. Goods provided by these

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donors included rations, medicines, blankets and clothing, tents, stoves, and much more. Indeed, these private donor agencies were the main providers of CGI sheets for the construction of semi-permanent shelters which helped people survive the winter and averted the need for a mass migration out of the affected areas. Of the 370,000 shelters constructed using CGI sheets, 175,000 sheets came from such contributors. Support in terms of services included volunteers to help in rubble clearance and rescue work, distribution of goods, construction of shelters, and medical personnel to provide treatment to the survivors [2]. As a first priority the aid agencies called for cash contributions as this is the most flexible resource. However, the corporate sector and private donors wanted to do more and arranged different types of resources, formed voluntary teams and tried to deliver them on their own. But this goodwill gesture quickly brought on surface many flaws in the system of private-public partnerships and also within the private sector. There was no list available to the corporations of what was needed by whom and more importantly what was not. There was no track of what corporations and other private donors were shipping and where. The private donors tried to act on more accessible areas resulting in a surplus of useful and non-useful supplies at these places and heavy traffic blockades on the access routes. This caused enormous difficulties for the regular aid agencies and their personnel to carry out their work and in some cases even reaching the affected areas was badly affected. In December 2004 when Tsunami struck in South Asia several corporations were able to become deeply involved in the relief effort. The difference was that these firms had established relationships with aid agencies well before Tsunami struck. Coca Cola for example had for years, maintained relationship with Red Cross. Coca Cola converted its soft drink production lines to bottle huge quantities of drinking water and used its distribution network to deliver it to relief sites. Similarly British Air, Fed Ex and DHL all worked with their aid agency partners to furnish free or subsidized transportation for relief cargo [3]. We believe and our research suggests that if worked through proper channels, such partnerships between corporate entities of Pakistan and relief agencies are also possible and can play an important role in the initial response of a natural disaster. Our paper aims to provide an effective framework for cooperation between the corporate sector and disaster management agencies in all the four disaster management phases i.e. mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. II.

available on the subject. In light of this, we formulated a series of questions that focused on the options that targeted on what these stakeholders believed could provide an effective frame work of cooperation between the corporate sector and aid agencies. These questions were put forth in form of structured interviews to NDMA officials, aid workers, CEOs of private corporations and other private donors who were either actively involved, or tried to do so, in the 2005 earthquake relief effort. In light of this exercise we are proposing a framework of cooperation that most of the corporate executives and NDMA officials in light of their previous experience believe is most suited for kicking off a more holistic public-private cooperation effort in disaster management cycle. III.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN PAKISTAN

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a disaster as "sudden ecological phenomenon of sufficient magnitude to require external assistance." The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) states that a disaster has occurred "when the destructive effects of natural or man-made forces overwhelm the ability of a given area or community to meet the demands for health care." The birth of the Red Cross organization in 1863 and designation of trained response personnel as first responders in emergencies marker the birth of “Emergency Management System (EMS)” concept. This process of emergency management involves four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery as shown in Figure 1. Though Pakistan historically has been one of the most vulnerable places in Asia for floods, droughts, earthquakes and other natural disasters but the country didn’t form any comprehensive disaster management system neither at a local level nor at a national level. National disaster management unfortunately remained limited to the response & recovery phases ever since independence of Pakistan in 1947, mainly through calling in the Armed Forces every time. There is no doubt that Pakistan’s disaster management system - warning, rescue, relief and rehabilitation need to be more sharply defined and better programmed. It was no different when after the country had recovered from the shocks of draught in the 2000-2002 period, another unprecedented natural calamity in the form of an earthquake wrecked death and destruction in 2005. It has only been after the 2005 earthquake that the government has started to invest in building the relief capability and infrastructure to build a more comprehensive disaster management system that focuses all the four phases. As a part of this effort the government has set up a National Disaster Management Authority in March 2007. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is now the lead agency at the federal level to deal with whole spectrum of Disaster Management Activities. It is the executive arm of the National Disaster Management Commission (NDMC), which has been established under the leadership of the Prime Minister, as the apex policy making body in the field of Disaster. The foremost aim of NDMA is to coordinate the complete spectrum of disaster risk management activities and envisions bringing a paradigm

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Efforts related to building a thorough disaster management approach are relatively new in Pakistan. It has only been two years since the government formed a national disaster management authority (NDMA) in 2007 to materialize its vision of building holistic capabilities of disaster management. We therefore first reviewed the disaster management policies of nations that already have such systems in place along with the government reports and other literature

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shift in the disaster management approach. It is striving to shift the focus to a balanced approach that also includes predisaster aspects like prevention, mitigation and preparedness as these, if not wholly, reduces the extent of damage. In the event of a disaster, NDMA aims to provide one window operation to all stakeholders, including Government Departments / Organizations, Armed Forces, INGOs, NGOs, UN agencies and other donors [4].

has not succeeded in developing active partnership network with the corporate sector. In our survey we found that NDMA in line with its vision has taken some initiatives to form partnership networks with the corporate sector. However, its officials have indicated that they have not achieved any meaningful success as of yet. We’ve found that the NDMA till now has been trying to establish its links with the corporate sector through the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), which is the national representative of the different chambers and associations that exist in the country. Literature survey suggests that partnerships amongst the corporations and aid providers could be of 02 types either philanthropic or integrative. It further cites 02 sub divisions of these partnership classes which can be adopted on a case to case basis [3]; Philanthropic Partnership • Single Company • Multi Company Integrative Partnership • Single Company • Multi Company The philanthropic partnership approach indicated here is a direct way of providing aid or material that the aid agency demands and targets more on the response and recovery phases. Whereas the integrative partnership option provides more effective and broad based approach in which companies can contribute with their core competencies in addition to philanthropic contribution both in times of peace and emergency thus contributing to all the four phases of disaster management. Making a multi-company partnership with either a single or a group of aid agencies though is a complex and slow process but it paves the way for much broader and effective cooperation. Members of the business community indicated that the corporate sector of Pakistan mainly represents itself at three recognized levels, namely: • FPCCI - National level • Chambers of Commerce - City level • Industry specific associations – Multi level/purpose We interviewed 38 top executives of different industries in the country. 35 of these executives indicated their willingness to participate in overall disaster risk management efforts at the national level but were ignorant about any such steps being undertaken by the NDMA in this regard. Furthermore 90% of the industry executives indicated that in their view the most preferred forum and effective form for forming such partnerships, especially integrative partnerships, will be through their industry’s association rather than through the FPCCI, Chambers of Commerce or even the single company level. These executives indicated that ‘associations’ in their view are by far the most potent and representative bodies of their companies’ interests. 27 of these top executives further informed that their respective companies are already engaged in general philanthropic work through their industries’ associations and also have cross company teams under these associations which actively engage in philanthropic work

Figure 1. Disaster management phases

IV.

CORPORATE SECTOR OF PAKISTAN

Pakistan's industrial and services sector account for about 26% and 52% of its GDP. Cotton textile production and clothe manufacturing are Pakistan’s leading industries, accounting for about 66% of the exports and nearly 40% of the employed work force. Other major industries include cement, fertilizer, oil & gas, edible oil, sugar, steel, tobacco, chemicals, machinery, food processing and telecommunication. The corporate sector and the general society in Pakistan, like in any other region, are heavily dependent upon each other for coexistence and prosperity. Many companies move to participate in humanitarian efforts because they have seen the staggering losses inflicted when disasters interrupt the flow of business. The corporate sector has shown its commitment and has always responded to the calls linked with post-disaster relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. Till date this effort, however, has been limited to contributions in the form of cash and goods in the support funds created by the government in event of a disaster. V.

SURVEY

The corporate sector possesses various resources – human, material, technical and financial – and has significant presence in many regions of Pakistan. Thus the corporate sector can contribute significantly in introduction of innovative ideas, technology, management skill bringing flexibility and speed of implementation. The relatively newly formed NDMA which is now Pakistan’s official disaster management agency as a part of its charter recognizes corporate sector as one of the key stakeholders in building a comprehensive disaster management strategy. It envisages extended participation of corporate sector in awareness generation, disaster mitigation, and mitigation planning in addition to usual post disaster contributions. To materialize this plan the NDMA has arranged a couple of seminars on the subject, but till now it

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either on their own or sometimes through various NGOs, which their associations have contacts with. These executives believe that this strategy of working through industry specific association suits them well as it not only creates a sense of achievement and competition in the companies’ functioning within a specific industry but also makes good business sense as their product and services reach the people in need under their associations flag. On the other hand, as per figures provided by the Ministry of Social Welfare there are an estimated 100,000 NGOs working in Pakistan amongst which 45,000 are formally registered with the ministry. These NGOs work on different kinds of projects as per their charters and according to NDMA 36 of these registered NGOs are presently working on various disaster risks management programs. VI.

functioning in the country to approach the corporate sector for partnerships. 1) Contact with the corporate sector should preferably be at the ‘Industry Association’ level 2) Type of partnership (philanthropic or integrative) should be discussed and agreed amongst the aid agencies and industry associations 3) The Joint Venture (JV) of Industry and Aid Agency should then prioritize needs and mutually agree on availability of ‘inventory of corporate resources’ for mounting a speedy and coordinated response in case of a disaster. 4) During the pre-disaster period this JV can effectively play its role along with NDMA in carrying out awareness generation, sensitization and training programs in their surrounding localities. 5) Media should be utilized to facilitate forming up JV partnerships and giving recognition at mass level so that industry also sees a business value in such efforts.

RECOMMENDATIONS

NDMA is a federal body which is now recognized as Pakistan’s official disaster management agency by the world-bank and other international donors. It thus has considerable resources available at its disposal. However, on the other hand it is a relatively new and inexperienced organization. NDMA till now has not been able to stream line all the activities involved in forming effective collaborative partnerships related to disaster risk management with the corporate sector. Since under the new national disaster management policy all relief efforts by any national or independent agency will need to be directed through NDMA, therefore it has formed strong relationship in the past two years with different NGOs working on disaster risk management in the country. In view of these findings, we believe that aid agencies and corporations have much to gain from their collaborative efforts of working together. But as the mutual benefits are extensive and important, so are the challenges of making such partnerships truly effective. Based on our survey we have prepared a series of steps that these stakeholders believed are best suited for realizing the goal of such partnerships. Instead of NDMA making direct partnership with corporations they should encourage NGOs already

VII. CONCLUSION We strongly believe that corporations are eager to get involved in disaster relief efforts in Pakistan. However, there is a need to stream line the systems and build strong and reliable partnerships at appropriate forums to successfully cater the four phases of disaster. With careful planning and focused efforts, NDMA can be instrumental in establishing these partnerships at the national level. REFERENCES [1]

[2]

[3] [4]

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World Bank Report: “108 / Disaster risk management programs for priority countries - South Asia.” http://gfdrr.org/ctrydrmnotes/Summary_Pakistan.pdf I. Idris, “Earth quake 8/10, Learning from Pakistan’s Experience,” National Disaster Management Authority, Pakistan. http://www.ndma.gov.pk/Publications/EQBook.pdf A. Thomas and L.Fritz, “Disaster Relief, Inc,” Harvard Business Review, November 2006. National Disaster Management Authority, Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Govt. of Pakistan. http://ndma.gov.pk/aboutNDMA.html