“Nature brings us extreme events, some people cause us prolonged sufferings”: the role of good governance in building community resilience to natural disasters in Bangladesh

Abstract

Disaster management and resilience-building initiatives have been hypothesized as more effective when integrated with local governance structures. However, factors shaping the institutionalization of disaster management remain poorly understood. We argue that success in such initiatives cannot be achieved without compliance with good governance criteria. We applied a qualitative research methodology following a Case Study approach, and data were collected using techniques from the Participatory Rural Appraisal toolbox from the field, and government and non-government organizational sources. We found that compliance with good governance criteria, financial and technical capacity (technology, tools and know-how skills) and autonomy and cross-scale institutional linkages are necessary conditions for successful local-level disaster management. Further policy and research attention require a closer examination of the dynamics of local-level institutions, which are on the front lines of disaster management and resilience building. In particular, special attention should be given to the integration of ‘governance’ and ‘resilience’ research streams.

Keywords:

• community resilience
• disaster management
• local institutions
• good governance
• cross-scale linkages
• autonomy
• gender
• institutional learning

Acknowledgements

The first author is also indebted to Canada Research Chair [CRC Tier I] Fund on Community-Based Resources Management and University of Manitoba for Graduate Fellowship for supporting his doctoral studies. The second author’s research work was supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship program, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Doctoral Award and the University of Manitoba Graduate Scholarship for doctoral studies.

Notes

1 US $ = 82.03 Bangladeshi currency (Taka) as per exchange rate of Bangladesh Bank (Central Bank of Bangladesh) on 3 December 2017. This conversion rate was applied throughout this manuscript.

2 In the context of our study, the term ‘technical capacity’ refers to ‘technology, tools and know-how skills.’ Examples of technical capacity include risk and hazard analysis, preparing risk and hazard maps, training volunteers and conducting postevent lesson-learned sessions. UDMCs usually lack capacity to carry out these activities by themselves; however, they perform such activities, but with ‘technical assistance’ from NGOs and other external institutions, primarily through partnerships and collaborative arrangements.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant [grant number 435-2018-0552], Ottawa, Canada.