Role of different stakeholders and their relative importance in managing disaster

Disasters have adverse effects on both lives and livelihoods. Addressing disaster poses two challenges for most countries, i.e. mitigation and the need to anticipate and diminish average effects of the change in climate, i.e. adaptation, which means changing the way we do things. This study aims to compare the performance of different stakeholders in disaster management. Any individual or single organization is not sufficient to manage disaster. It requires collective management. The organizations responsible for disasters are national government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local governments, the National Cadet Corps (NCC), scouts organizations, local clubs, media and community organizations. It is important that different stakeholders understand their role in emergency response and take appropriate measures to reduce the ill effect of disaster. Communities are the first to respond in any disaster. Media disseminate messages to the people about the timing, impact and process. We seek to explore the perceptions of disaster affected people with regard to the efforts of the different sectors/organizations to respond to and mitigate disasters in their locality. For this study, we purposively selected two coastal districts, namely North and South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, India. The study concentrated on the role performed by different organizations and their relative importance in disaster preparedness and management. Among the many lessons drawn from this comparative study, the key finding is that there is a significant similarity and a significant difference among the different organizations in respect of disaster management. According to villagers' perceptions, the relative importance of the role performed by the various stakeholders was community (most important), NGOs, local governments, voluntary organizations, government agencies and media.