The Impact of Disaster Risk Management on the Development of Small-scale Business in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of the study is to examine the impact of disaster management on development of small scale businesses in Northern Nigeria. The specific objectives of the studies are to:
- Assess the effectiveness of disaster risk management on local institutions in Northern Nigeria.
- Assess the implication of mitigating disaster risk on small scale businesses in northern Nigeria.
- Determine how funds are provided to manage disaster in Northern states.
- Determine how policy and operational support at state and federal level affect disaster risk management in the Northern Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter covers idea and theoretical as well as empirical review of the subject matter in line with the objective of this research as such the literature is segmented into idealistic framework, theoretical framework as well as empirical literature review.
Theoretical Background and Working Definition
It seems that our world is steadily becoming more unstable and unpredictable, from terrorism, to climate change, to a possible economic collapse; disaster looks as if it is right around the corner. Disaster management seeks to mitigate those risks and product society from disintegration following the aftermath of terrible destruction. Understanding it requires a look at the various concepts that underlie current approaches and future changes in the field.
According to Egbe (2009), any significant discussion of disaster management needs to sketch out what exactly a disaster is, and what if anything human beings can do when definition of a “disaster” tends to elude us, being instead contingent on the particular attitudes and ideals of the day.
Still, a disaster can be generally understood as “a natural human-caused event, occurring with or without warning, causing or threatening death, injury or disease, damage to property, infrastructure or the environment, which exceeds the ability of the affected society to cope only its own resources.”
The above definition has certain consequences when we speak about “disaster management” because it implies that the particular area which is being affected does not have the ability to fight through the event on its own. For many, the memory of hurricane Katrina, and its effects on New Orleans in 2005, event evoke just that sort of destruction. It seemed that whole of the engulfed in chaos, misery and death. It is in such situations that disaster management comes into play to minimize the disruption caused by the event, and in doing so protect life and property, and civilization itself.
The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (Geneva 2001) defines a ‘disaster’ as ‘a serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope using only its own resources’.
Disaster Risk is usually conceptualized as being made up of two elements, hazard and vulnerability, which can be expressed in an equation: disaster risk = hazard x vulnerability. Risk is therefore dependent on the existence of a household’s vulnerability to a natural event.
Disaster Risk Mitigation (DRM) Strategies refer to a household’s or local institutions preparedness to reduce the impact of a risk event, either one that has already occurred or one that may occur in future. Mitigation includes prevention and preparedness (WFP, 1998: 4).
The concept of disaster risk management implies a notion of household vulnerability, which is often said to contain a ‘risk chain’: the risk itself, the options for managing risk and The outcome in terms of welfare loss, in the case of households, and of financial loss and adverse consequences for sustainability in the case of local institutions (Alwang et al. 2001).
A paper by the WFP (1998) claims that: “review of donor practices and the literature reveals that there are no universally accepted definitions of the terms […] mitigation, prevention and preparedness an activity may be considered to be an act of preparedness. Moreover, the distinction of terms is often blurred. In one situation an activity may be considered to be an act of preparedness, and in another it is prevention. For this reason, many of the definitions found in the literature are vague and all-encompassing” (p3).
For lack of space, readers are referred to the literature (e.g.,FAO 2003, IFAD 2002, uphoff 1997) for a definition of the term ‘local institution’, as both and ‘institution’ are concepts that are difficult to unpack.
The usage of the later conforms, in the broad sense of the terms, to widely accepted definition of ‘the rules, organizations and social norms facilitate the coordination of human action’. The fact that to some large extent they are context-specific helps us fend off the unappealing prospect of getting embroiled in long-winding conceptualizations: for the intents and purposes of this review we may unworriedly hope to get away with employing the term loosely to refer to an organization of local actors’. For lack of space (see the next section below), the emphasis in this endeavour is on their displaying some degree of “formality” (read as: “visibility”, for a proxy) and on their containing some element of collective (i.e., suprahousehold) action.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Research methodology can be seen as the process through which genuine and reliable answer to problems is given through a planned and systematic method of data collection, analysis and presentation. It describes the sort of data to be collected and what instrument to be used.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
This chapter contains detailed presentation of results findings and discussion for this study. All the data collected through the questionnaire to provide answers to the research questions.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary
The study examines the impact of disaster Risk Management on the development of small scale business in Northern Nigeria. The research questions that guided this study were:
How effective is disaster risk management on local institutions in Northern Nigerian?
What is the implication of mitigating disaster risk on small scale business in Northern Nigeria?
How do Northern states access funds to manage risk associated with disaster?
How does policy and operational support at state and federal level affect disaster risk management in Northern Nigeria?
The survey method was used as the research design. The entire population of 35 person from NEMA and SEMA in five northern state with a population of 200 persons . A questionnaire design in five likert scale was used as the instrument of data collection. The mean (x) was used to analyze data.
The result of findings indicates that The effectiveness of disaster risk management in Northern Nigeria is seen from the efficiency of NEMA in Northern Nigeria, as well as the effectiveness of state government Disaster Risk prevention and monitoring in Northern Nigeria, Ecological Fund allocated to Northern states are not effectively managed.
The implication of disaster risk management on small scale businesses in Northern Nigeria is basically to Protect small scale businesses from disaster, Facilitate relieve to small scale businesses during emergency, Help small scale businesses in risk prevention, Facilitate the continuous existence of small scale businesses and Facilitate the continuous existence of small scale businesses.
Funds are assessed to manage risk associated with disaster through Disaster risk mitigation trust Fund managed by state through formal institutional structure, Fund raising and Ecological fund accessed from federal government,
Bilateral and multilateral assistance at international level as well as accessing the global environmental facility fund of world bank.
Policy and operational support at state level are seen by The activities and statuary obligations of NEMA which has improved disaster risk management in northern Nigeria, Government policies that promotes State disaster trust fund in Northern Nigeria, Government policies that promote public-private sector initiatives in Disaster Risk mitigation in Northern Nigeria, Ecological Fund allocated to Northern states.
Conclusion
Disaster Risk Management is a dynamic strategy that seeks to minimize the exposure of mankind to risk emanating from man-made and natural disaster. As such It is clear from the study that the recommended funding arrangements included in the National Disaster Management Framework for Nigeria, are needed in order to cover the costs of t he different disaster risk management activities. Frequently, these measures are not applied in practice by the different spheres of government. Based on the fin dings and conclusions drawn from the information obtained during the study a more flexible funding model should be developed to address the problem being experienced by Northern states, especially states that are experiencing difficulties in making funding available for establishing and maintaining the disaster risk management function that is their res ponsibility in terms of legislation”. It was, however, very interesting to note that when the data obtained fro m the different states were analysed, there was almost no difference in the problems that the different categories of had experienced as far as funding for the disaster risk management function was concerned. This is a clear indication that it was not only an isolated problem within a specific state, but a general constraint across the board in all the northern states. These conclusions were arrived at based on the case studies used for this project. They can therefore be generalized and applied to all Northern states in Nigeria . As such inspite of the identified constraint of Disaster risk management in northern Nigeria arising from improper management of ecological funds and its importance cannot be overemphasized.
Recommendations
The following measures will help in enhancing Disaster risk management in Northern Nigeria:
- Planning and budgeting process of the state disaster risk management centres should form part of the integrated development planning and medium-term revenue and expenditure budgeting process. The same principle applies in the case of the National disaster risk management centres.
- Funding for activities or operations of a local government disaster risk management centre or unit should be the responsibility of the municipality and therefore be included in the budget of a municipality
- State government should also consider using a portion of the equitable share of the revenue allocated to them in funding small scale business affected by disaster.
- In the case of damages to infrastructure, state government can also apply for world bank funding through the normal processes and utilize it to cater for rehabilitation and reconstruction purposes.
- All state should have funding available for skills d evelopment, as required by the Skills Development Levies Act. In other words, they have to budget for training and capacity-building of personnel in charge of disaster mitigation and prevention
References
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