Building Disaster-Resilient Communities

Abstract

South Asia as a region is very diverse, dynamic, and also fragmented in terms of cultures, religion, political structures, and weak governance mechanisms, making it more vulnerable to both natural and human-made disasters. Frequent disasters in the region have caused massive damages to critical infrastructure in the region and significantly impacted the lives and property of about two billion people. However, disaster management remains largely top-down, technocentric, and donor-driven, situating the people affected as passive beneficiaries and victims rather than actors. There is a need for people-centered disaster management policies and programs that enhance communitarian values and resilience. This chapter maps the evolution of social work and how the profession has been responding to disasters in the South Asian region. By taking the 2015 earthquake in Nepal as a case in point, I argue that building a resilient South Asia is possible if disaster management becomes people-centered and responsive rather than reactive and oppressive. Based on my direct practice and the reflections of