Mobilization of social action and effective civil society led advocacy for DRM is effective for making government accountable and a responsible actor in DRM

4. Mobilization of social action and effective civil society led advocacy for DRM is effective for making government accountable and a responsible actor in DRM

The CBDRM Realist Review also mentioned this key strategy for achieving community resilience. Mobi lizing social action (or collective action) is often indispensable because village authorities do not operate at the appropriate level and scale to solve underlying risk factors (Allen, 2006). Further, one communi ty lacks the leverage to be taken serious by government institutions. When communities organize them selves into broader issue- or needs-based networks, they are able to share lobby work loads, portray shared concerns and enjoy greater legitimacy as local representatives (Few, 2002; O’Brien et al, 2009; Luna, 2011). Civil society networks make it possible to establish connections outside people’s innate social networks. Vertical connections with authorities and power-holders make it possible for local voices to be heard at district, provincial and national level, and to access national level financial resources for disaster risk reduction.

A key pre-requisite for mobilizing effective social action is that CBOs developed leadership skills like faci litation, management, negotiation, mediation, and speaking in public a.o. These skills are indispensable assets and should be part of community capacity development strategies.

Mobilizing collective action for lobby and advocacy encourages governance actors to acknowledge the needs of their citizens. A specific strategy is community-led policy monitoring (CPM). In CPM, communi ties are at the centre of the action – identifying needs and action plans, and challenging the government to provide the right enabling environment and resources for citizens to reduce

their risk to disaster 26 . It is important that NGOs together with local actors explore the institutional context: what are relevant (new) laws, which agency or department is responsible, what are trends in spatial planning processes within government to anticipate new risks; explore the institutional bureaucracies to discover who in the bureaucracy is supporting the people’s agenda, and who is opposing. When local people and facilitators are aware of the institutional context, they are more conscious of how these actors perform their powers in the DRM spaces where social actors negotiate, debate and struggle for safety, protection and secure livelihoods. Because of an increased awareness, the NGO will run less risk of getting entangled in local power-plays.

Media play a vital role in supporting or opposing people’s agenda for safety and protection. Media refer to broadcasting, internet, printed publications and social media. People read media for information, to get alerted to any threats to their lives, and concerning corruption or incompetence in government and other actors responsible for people’s safety (Redford and Wisner, 2012). Journalists can question negli gence and indifference to respond properly and effectively to disaster risks. They can convince and per suade the public that this situation should change and generate support for such change. It is important to reiterate the same message in as many different ways as possible. On the other hand, media can also report on successful DRR practices and tell how disasters could be avoided. Communities and NGO have to look for media that believe that journalism is more than just daily entertainment, and that in a democracy, journalists have an obligation to support, defend, inform and alert the public (ibid).