Research Consultancy on Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula in South Asian and South East Asian Countries for Plan Sweden
David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa have completed a December 2013/January 2014 research consultancy for Plan Sweden into disaster risk reduction (DRR) pre-school, school and post-secondary curricula in four South Asian and South East Asian countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia and Pakistan.
The research involved reviewing DRR developments across the curriculum and through the grade levels as well as inter-linkages between DRR curriculum, teaching and learning and other components of a comprehensive approach to DRR in school and community (in particular safe school management and safe school infrastructural developments). It also explored how development agencies are contributing – and might in the future contribute – to DRR curriculum development across the four countries.
Research methodologies included:
- An initial snowball sampling process to map out key players and stakeholders in DRR curriculum development in the four countries
- A literature search and review of policy documents as well as academic and professionally-oriented literature relating to disaster risk reduction education in the four countries and regionally
- Individual interviews with experts, key players and stakeholders in disaster risk reduction curriculum development in the four countries and regionally
- An online fact finding and perspective garnering questionnaire
- A Delphi Forecasting exercise on the future potential role of development agencies in fostering systematic DRR curriculum development.
The forty-page paper resulting from the research contains reviews of developments in each country and an analysis and discussion of the role of development agencies in DRR curriculum development and support in each country with proposals for the future. The paper closes by applying its findings and insights to critical scrutiny of the explanatory text and education and training activities enumerated under the Hyogo Framework for Action, Priority 3, Core Indicator 2: ‘Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels’. Recommendations are made for updating and, hence, sharpening the relevance of the successor section to be adopted by governments at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Sendai, Japan, 2015.