Prioritizing Schools & Education: Good Intentions But Miles To Go Ben Wisner Oberlin College/DESTIN-LSE/Benfield Hazard Research Centre-UCL ActionAid/ISDR.

Prioritizing Schools & Education:Good Intentions But Miles To Go

Ben WisnerOberlin College/DESTIN-LSE/Benfield Hazard Research Centre-UCL

ActionAid/ISDR Consultant

Acknowledgments!

• Dr. Tracy Monk – Families for School Seismic Safety, Vancouver, Canada

• ISDR Education Cluster Group• ISDR Regional Offices• ActionAid• COGSS – Coalition for School Seismic

Safety• Literally 100s of Super-Generous

Colleagues!

The Review

Hyogo Framework Action Area 3:

• Knowledge management

• Education

• Risk awareness

Where Does it All Start????

It Starts with Local Knowledge& Primary Schools

But there are Threats!• Education MDG is not being met!

• Teachers receive low pay & are poorly supported

• Schools themselves may be in dangerous locations

• … and unprotected from high wind, flash flooding, landslides, storm surges

CONSIDER JUST ONE HAZARD: EARTHQUAKE

School collapses resulting in deaths

Bingol Turkey 2003 (84)

Ahmedabad, India 2003 (>25)

Bachu, China 2003 (>20)

Pakistan 2005 (c. 17,000)

Tangshin, China 1976 (>2,000) Spitak, Armenia 1988 (>1,000) Ardakul, Iran1997 (110) Cariaco, Venezuela 2001 (46)Molise, Italy 2002 (26)

Other Threats, Gaps & Opportunities

• Brain drain & Brains down the drain (Unemployment/ mal-employment, HIV-AIDS, violence, declining life expectancy & DALYs)

• MDC & Transitional country scientific dominance (HIPCs & Africa left behind)

• ICT imbalances (“digital divide”)• Persistent NS/SS split (the “two cultures”)• Gap between research and action (“the last

mile”)

School Curricula Today• Many focus on earth science

• Many focus on preparedness & drills

• Few integrate the two

• Fewer develop their own local curriculum

• Far fewer GO OUTSIDE and study the school’s hazards & the communities

BUT THIS IS WHERE

THE POTENTIAL LIES!

Back to Hyogo

• All levels of education and research can be better linked with each other

• Available science and local knowledge can be APPLIED

• South-South networking can improve

• Bottom up (students, teachers, communities) & Top down (government, UN, IOs, NGOs) can be better connected