Over the years, a paradigm shift worldwide has emerged in the theory and practice of disaster management. In time past, disasters were treated as one-time events with the focus on geo-physical and engineering knowledge, and without consideration of the social and developmental aspects. In recent times however, the attitude has shifted towards preparedness, with an emphasis on ‘contingency planning’ and relief supplies. Even in the most recent times, as disaster losses continue to increase, there is a further shift from a response approach to a more proactive attitude, with the understanding that disasters are more related to the vulnerability of the people, which has its genesis in the development patterns pursued.

With the new insights gained in the field, there has been the need to refocus on vulnerability reduction. Governments and their agencies responsible for managing disasters have been advocating for and ‘practising’ disaster risk reduction (DRR), which involves planning and acting in a manner designed to reduce vulnerability and work towards preventing hazards from taking the shape of a disaster. In Ghana, the vision of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the institution responsible for disaster management, resonates with this rethinking. NADMO’s vision is inter-alia:

… to reduce the risk of people, especially the poor and disadvantaged from the effects of natural, environmental and human induced hazards by coordinating the resources of Government institutions and Non-Governmental Agencies and the Private Sector and developing the capacity of individuals and communities in the Prevention, Response and Recovery from disasters. (NADMO 2010:6)

Despite these lofty ideas, the implementation of the principles seems quite challenging. Building resilient communities requires creating awareness at grass roots level about the fundamental concepts of vulnerability and building their capacity to cope with hazards, disasters and their interrelationships. This paper revisits the problem of institutional framework for disaster management in Ghana (WRC 2011). It brings the organisation under the microscope by examining its capacity – staff strength and quality; office infrastructure and logistics; the availability of relief items; funding and appropriate institutional collaboration – resources that can help the organisation to fulfil its constitutional mandate. The paper recommends a novel organisational scheme which resonates with best practices in other countries as a better option for NADMO to manage disasters both effectively and efficiently. The paper presents a two-fold contribution:

• The author highlights some of the flaws in the modus operandi of NADMO that have made the public perceive it as a ‘rice and blanket distribution organisation’. This is done in an attempt to trigger a debate that will help the organisation graduate from the situation where it plans for, instead of with, people.

• The author also proposes a novel approach that would allow NADMO to adopt and operate a ‘bottom-up’ approach that will help localise DRR programmes. Such an approach will also encourage effective collaboration, where each participant will become an integral part of the planning and implementation process.

The ability of managers of the economy to achieve these targets produces ‘secured liveable cities’ where residents live in harmony within a socially just environment. Though many aspire to this ideal standard, it still remains a dream for many, especially those in the developing world. The reasons range from poor urban governance and political indecision to increasing pressure from competing demands, which incapacitate the authorities’ ability to perform or adequately respond to new pressures. These pressures increase human vulnerability and hazard risk. The situation becomes chronic where a myriad of problems – corruption, nepotism, political ‘cronyism’ and a general weakness in governance in the face of rapid environmental change – tend to build potential hazards. This is not to discount the latent risks that accumulate in some supposed ‘safe cities’. Indeed, Pelling (2012) cautions that, even amongst the contemporarily-perceived ‘safe cities’ that appear secure at first glance, diversity in land use, socio-economic capacity and local governance produce a mosaic of risk and security where local – and sometimes extensive – insecurity can be found amidst the apparent safety.

In Accra, the capital city of Ghana, there are rapidly growing numbers of families living in slums (about 70%) that are characterised by poor construction, cramped spaces, deplorable sanitary conditions, and a lack of basic neighbourhood amenities. They are often highly exposed to risk in all its forms from crime and violence to economic exploitation and environmental hazard, presenting a gloomy picture (Melara et al. 2012, 2013; Songsore 2008). More than 90% of the current urban poor live in developing countries, and 600 million of them live in life- and health-threatening homes and communities (UN-Habitat 2009). Of particular concern are those living in formal housing that has been constructed quickly, ignoring building standards or with inappropriate land-use zoning (Oteng-Ababio 2011a, 2012; UN-Habitat 2008).

Aside from the mainly human-generated vulnerabilities, there are other risks of such catastrophic dimensions that they create overwhelming hazards with accompanying disaster events that assume a magnitude that destroys not only the physical space – built infrastructure and settlement pattern in a city – but also the cultural meaning attributed to a place (Hewitt 1997; Razzu 2005). Although such events at times assume gargantuan proportions, they also sometimes provide some opportunities for the authorities to redevelop some downgraded and/or informal settlements (Vale & Campanella 2005). In Ghana, as in most developing countries, however, such not-too-glaring opportunities are normally missed in favour of other financial and political interests. On a few occasions where authorities proactively embark on redevelopment after a disaster, the resultant high-value land property tends to be far and above the financial reach of those originally affected, forcing the poorer residents, who normally lack the political and social capital, to relocate. The redevelopment of the Makola Market in Accra after the 1992 fire outbreak is a case in point (Oteng-Ababio & Sarpong 2012).

In the current circumstances, Pelling (2012) argues that:

[T]he nature of hazard and risk – who the vulnerable are, the scale of vulnerability and scope for its amelioration – is at its most basic level, an outcome of competing values and visions and the distribution of political, economic and social power, which in turn determine expenditure on physical and social infrastructure and the application of technological innovation.

It can also be argued that the rapid population growth and urbanisation do not in themselves generate risk, nor does the potential future increase threats. This paper submits that with proper planning and the creation of an appropriate institutional framework, such challenges are resolvable through appropriate local, metropolitan and national governance regimes. The onus lies squarely on the authorities to put in place appropriate and well-rehearsed institutional structures that will meet the exigencies posed by the realities of today’s demographic dynamics. It is against this background that this paper explores the capacity of NADMO to manage disaster events, taking into consideration the realities of the 21st century – the obvious effects of climate change and the increasing urbanisation of poverty.

FIGURE 1: Map of Ghana, showing the research locations.

The increasing incidence, severity and duration of disasters compelled the U.N. General Assembly to declare the period 1992–2001 as a decade for disaster reduction, culminating in the establishment of the International Decade for National Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) initiative. The main objective of the initiative was to focus global initiatives and attention on an integrated system for co-coordinating both international and internal efforts to deal with disaster. This clarion call, coupled with a series of disaster events, inspired the government of Ghana and civil society to focus more on the activities of NADMO than before. This renewed focus is happening at a time when, in the minds of many Ghanaians, NADMO exists only to distribute relief items, apparently because of its inability to respond in an appropriate manner to disaster events.

• Prepare National, Regional and District Disaster Management Plans for preventing and mitigating the effects of disaster.
• Ensure the establishment of adequate facilities for technical training and institution of educational programmes to provide public awareness, warning systems, and general preparedness for its staff and the general public.
• Coordinate local and international support for disaster or emergency relief services and reconstruction.

These functions are intended to enable NADMO to manage disasters by coordinating the resources of government institutions and NGOs, and developing the capacity of communities to respond to disasters. To actualise this goal, early in 2000 the organisation set-up a Strategic Plan for 2004–2006 (NADMO 2010) whose specific objectives include:

• equip all NADMO staff countrywide with technical, managerial and administrative skills to perform their duties effectively and efficiently by 2005
• improve the coordination of the activities of government and international agencies by December 2006
• stockpile items for relief, resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction by December each year.

After almost a decade of experimenting with the strategic plan, flooding remains a perennial problem, whilst the media landscape is replete with fire occurrences, both commercial and residential, as well as wildfires. Additionally, a large number of the citizenry continue to behave in ways (including building on waterways and marginal lands with impunity) that not only threaten their very lives but also pose a greater challenge to the society and the environment at large – a threat that inhibits our quest to build safer communities, hence enhancing the need to interrogate the capacity of NADMO to manage eventualities.

[T]o equip all NADMO staff countrywide with technical, managerial and administrative skills to perform their duties effectively and efficiently by 2005.

The results, however, show a contradictory arrangement. The current geographical distribution of staff, in terms of quality and gender, disproportionately favours the GAR. In all, Accra has a total of 5117 staff members, about 30% of whom are women. The UWR has a total of 192, 83% being males. The acute imbalance in the staff distribution can potentially compromise the ability of the disadvantaged regions to respond to emergencies in a timely manner. During the in-depth interviews, an official at the NADMO headquarters offered this assertion:

[T]his office [headquarters] is really congested and now, it is very difficult if not impossible, to monitor the performance of some of the staff. Currently, over 60% of our members are in this region. It is about time we sent more men to the regions.

The effect of this discrepancy becomes obvious if viewed against the backdrop that disaster events have become increasingly rampant and devastating nationwide and the fact that poverty levels assume chronic dimensions as one moves northwards. Commenting on the performance of the NADMO office vis-à-vis its current strength, the coordinator admits:

NADMO’s present core business is to sensitise [educate] the general public on the dos and don’ts of disasters through mainly the mass media. However, given the fact that only 52% of the people can read and write, that becomes a herculean task. Meanwhile, our current staff strength does not allow us to reach the large population.

In the UWR, for example, the regional office has three desktop computers and three laptops; all other district offices have one desktop each, while the zonal offices have none. Ironically, during interactions with the officers at the zonal and district levels, they appear satisfied with their situation. This complacency could be attributed to the fact that computers tend to be seen as a ‘status symbol’ rather than a working tool, apparently because most staff are themselves computer illiterate. It did not, therefore, come as a surprise when the few officers who claimed to store data ostensibly claimed to do so ‘manually’. The erratic supply of electricity without any alternative sources observed during the study make such a claim understandable.

FIGURE 2: Distribution of transport facilities.

The distribution of communication gadgets follows a similar pattern, with Accra being favoured over-generously. Not only do most officers possess ‘Gota phones’ (a type of Motorola set used by all security agencies) which guarantee free communication, but some also allegedly benefit from private mobile phones with constant monthly rechargeable top-up units. At the regional level, such facilities are limited to the coordinators. In UWR, a Senior Officer revealed that a private mobile phone company, Expresso, had presented the regional secretariat with seven mobile phones. However, only two of the said phones ended up in two of the districts. This has a negative impact on effective communication for efficient risk management. During the interactions, one district coordinator remarked:

I earn less than 900 Cedis a month; yet they expect me to use my meagre salary to buy phone top-ups to communicate with them whilst they monopolise all the free communications gadgets at the regional and national levels.

You just need to listen to the private radio stations in times of a disaster – flooding; fire; pest infestation; et cetera – and you will appreciate the sort of humiliation we go through. Radio presenters and their ‘serial callers’ (social commentators who phone-in into radio programmes) subject us to series of questions and insinuations as if we are just thieves and don’t know what we are about. We will always have to wait for the things [relief items] to arrive from Accra before any assistance can be offered.

Other interactions also revealed that even though the coordinators occasionally receive relief items from some international organisations including the Red Cross, the Catholic Relief Services, USAID, et cetera, the untimely distribution of such items normally defeats the purposes for such items. A reaction from an official of one of these international agencies did not contradict this allegation, but nonetheless questions the capacity of NADMO to handle relief items at the regional and district levels. An official of the Ghana Red Cross submitted:

Red Cross worldwide demands strict accountability in the discharge of its activities, but with current arrangements in most of the regional and district offices of NADMO the organisation may perform abysmally when subjected to any litmus test. Take for example, the case of Sissala West District, which uses a garage of the DCE as a warehouse.

The findings actually reveal that apart from Accra, where three warehousing facilities have been constructed, other NADMO offices rely on their respective regional and district administration warehouses for the safe-keeping of relief items. The situation is worse at the district levels, where in most cases a part of the district office is used as a warehouse.

They are also to coordinate, organise and direct meetings, programmes and strategies for disaster management. This arrangement appears pregnant with institutional tensions and is an obstacle to effective disaster management. In most cases, when it comes to handling tribal conflict or fire disasters, lead agencies which are institutions specialised in handling specific disasters, for example, the Police and the Fire Service, remain sceptical of the current command structure. A Senior Police Officer remarked:

[Y]ou can’t trust a politician when you are on the battle field. Apart from politicians being stark illiterate and ignorant about the rudiments of warfare, most of these tribal conflicts are orchestrated by the same people, yet they will always want you to perceive their opponents as the aggressors. You need to always delink politics from such operations, which unfortunately these guys [coordinators] will not allow. How can you genuinely take instructions from them, only to go contrary to the dictates of your profession, which clearly spells out the chain of command during such operations and the sanctions for default?

Another security officer alleged that when there was massive flooding that overwhelmed some communities in the UWR in the last three days of July 2008 due to the opening of the BAGRE dam (a hydro-electric dam in Burkina Faso), his colleagues and NADMO officials joined forces. They shared information and coordinated their efforts, working tirelessly to survey the damage, identify needs and marshal resources. Both drew on their experience of previous crises, including similar flooding around Tamale in June 2004 and the displacement of tens of thousands of people in 2005 during a chieftaincy conflict in Bawku in the Upper East region. Yet, one of the officers was later court-marshalled for granting a radio interview on the challenges they encountered in their operations without recourse to ‘headquarters’ (which the government found distasteful). Such tendencies, they opine, impede effective collaboration with different institutions, with different rules of engagement in risk management at all levels.

The committee wondered whether successive governments are aware of the enormity of the responsibility of NADMO in this age of widespread disasters worldwide. The committee strongly recommends for the adoption of the House that in view of the importance of the role of NADMO, the House directs the Cabinet and Government to make adequate resource allocation to NADMO to ensure that it has the capacity to be fully functional. Disaster preparedness is very crucial particularly in this era of climate change where the weather is unpredictable. There is the need for urgent action to assist NADMO to address its problems to enable it play a meaningful role in saving lives and property during disasters. (Parliament of Ghana, July 11 2011)

The author endorses this call and observes that despite irrefutable evidence that mitigation activities can reduce the negative impact of disasters, which might only occur sometime in the future or not at all, governments are reluctant to spend money to limit or forestall such effects. I further argue strongly that contemporary disaster management entails putting in place appropriate mechanisms to manage risk rather than managing disaster. This necessarily demands building the capacities of the agencies involved in disaster management, particularly by providing and operationalising an appropriate institutional framework.

The organisation appears to be preoccupied with a top-down approach, where devastation and destruction occur before action is taken. Meanwhile, risk reduction entails the systematic development and application of policies, strategies and practices in order to minimise vulnerabilities and risks throughout society, or to avoid (prevent) and limit (mitigate and prepare) the adverse impacts of hazards. Additionally, disaster reduction activities should be based on participatory approaches involving key stakeholders, especially local communities, as much as practicable since solutions become more sustainable if they come from the people themselves through a bottom-up approach (Wisner et al. 2004; Oteng-Ababio 2011b, 2012).

Clearly, the current policies and decisions of NADMO have created unintended consequences including poor governance, selfishness, apathy and lack of entitlement. They also often neglect communities’ perceptions in building capacity to deal with extreme events, and this tends to exacerbate potential hazards. As alluded to in the literature (Hewitt 1983; Lewis 1999; Oliver-Smith 1986; Wisner et al. 2004), such tendencies create disaster conditions more than natural environmental events. This ‘process’ is neither a quantitative snapshot in space and time, nor is it only about the present; it relates to what, why and how we are, where we are and how we might change the present to improve the future.

The clearest manifestation of the failure of NADMO policies is the attempt to amend Act 517 of 1996. The draft bill, which is yet to receive parliamentary approval, in part seeks legal empowerment to enforce certain regulations, for example, the demolition of structures built on marginal lands. The study does not see the challenge to the efficient and effective performance of NADMO as legal. Rather, it sees the problem as having more to do with the current organisational structure which appears counter-productive and needs re-organisation. In the process, the government faces a number of difficult questions. The first has to do with the appropriate roles for ‘politicians’ and public servants (who should be apolitical) in any disaster management plan. A closely-related conundrum concerns the undeniable resource constraints with many competing needs. The question then is: should government use its limited resources to prevent the build-up of disaster risks, or rather merely to clean up after calamities have occurred?

A reality presents itself and inevitably, a policy must be made, and in a forward-looking manner. This reality is best captured by Gilbert White’s observation: ‘Floods are acts of nature; but flood losses are largely acts of man’ (Bowen & Thomas 2009). Without doubt, the best disaster response and recovery policy involves advance planning, which ensures that disaster impacts fewer people and requires fewer resources. The situation where the ‘Coordinators’ head their respective management teams is counter-productive and breeds some subtle animosity between themselves, the assemblies and some public officials, such as the Police and the Fire Service. In order to prevent or mitigate disaster risk, or soften disaster impact where prevention is impossible, the study recommends the creation of an independent Emergency Service Structure with a Director General appointed through the Public Service competitive recruitment process, a structure akin to that operating in South Africa (see Figure 3).

FIGURE 3: Proposed Emergency Services Structure.

[m]ore effective prevention strategies would save not only tens of billions of dollars, but save tens of thousands of lives. Funds currently spent on intervention and relief could be directed to enhancing equitable and sustainable development instead, which would further reduce the risk for war and disaster. Building a culture of prevention is not easy. While the cost of prevention has to be paid in the present, its benefits lie in a distant future. Moreover, the benefits are not tangible; they are the disaster that did not happen. (Kofi Annan 1999)

The country has come a long way in its understanding and experiencing of the impact of disasters. It has, in principle, also appreciated the fact that the best possible mitigation approach is the proper design and building of an appropriate institutional framework for disaster management, a point in support of which several case studies have been cited. This study has therefore presented another opportunity for the Ministry of the Interior to undertake further studies as to how to cement the current recommendations for possible implementation.

Bernard, H.R., 2000, Research methods in anthropology: qualitative and quantitative approaches, 2nd edn., Alta Mira, Walnut Creek, CA.

Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., Davis, I. & Wisner, B., 1994, At Risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters, Routledge, New York.

Bowen, S. & Thomas E.A., 2009, ‘Preventing human-caused disasters’, Natural Hazard Observer 34(2), 1–9.

Cannon, T., Twigg, T. & Rowell J., 2003, ‘Social vulnerability, sustainable livelihood and disasters’, report to DFID Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Department (CHAD) and Sustainable Livelihood Support Office, viewed 06 June 2012, from http://www.eldis.org/go/topics&id=21628&type=Document#.URIl-R04sjA

EPA, 2010, National action programme to combat drought and desertification, Environmental Protection Agency, Accra.

Ghana Living Standard Survey, 2008, Report of the fifth round Ghana living standard statistics 5, Ghana Statistical Service, Accra.

Grant R., 2009, Globalizing city: The urban and economic transformation of Accra, Syracuse University Press, Ghana/New York.

Hewitt, K., 1983, ‘The idea of calamity in a Technocratic age’, in K. Hewitt (ed.), Interpretations of calamity from the viewpoint of human ecology, pp. 3–32, Allen and Unwin, Boston.

Hewitt, K., 1997, Regions of risk: A geographical introduction to disaster, Addison Wesley, Longman, New York.

ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction), 2009, Global assessment report on disaster risk reduction, United Nations, Geneva.

Lewis, J., 1999, Development in disaster-prone places: Studies & vulnerability, Intermediate Technology Publications, London.

Melara A.J.E., Oteng-Ababio, M., Ayele, B. & Grant, R., 2012, Millennium cities initiative AMA community upgrading profile: Korle Gonno, The Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York.

Melara A.J.E., Grant, R., Oteng-Ababio, M. & Ayele, B., 2013, ‘Downgrading – An overlooked reality in African cities: Reflections from an indigenous neighborhood of Accra, Ghana’, Applied Geography 36, 23–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2012.04.012

NADMO (National Disaster Management Organisation), 2010, National Standard Operating Procedures for Emergency Response, NADMO, Accra.

NADMO (National Disaster Management Organisation), 2011, Unpublished Annual Report 2011, NADMO, Accra.

Oliver-Smith, A., 1986, The Martyred City: Death and rebirth in the Andes, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Oteng-Ababio, M., 2011a, ‘Neglected vulnerabilities in a rapidly urbanizing city: Reflections on earthquake risks in Accra’, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 27(2), 187–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10901-011-9249-2

Oteng-Ababio, M., 2011b, ‘Governance crisis or attitudinal challenges: Collection, storage and transportation of solid waste in Ghana’, in S. Kumar (ed.), Integrated Waste Management Volume 1, pp. 3–22, Intech Open Access Publishers, Croatia.

Oteng-Ababio, M., 2012, ‘(In)justice: Unequal exposure to ecological hazards in Metropolitan Accra’, International Journal of Environment and Planning A (in press).

Oteng-Ababio M. & Osman A., 2012, Hulking Hazards: Exploring Fire Risk Vulnerabilities in Ghanaian Markets, Research Report (in press).

Oteng-Ababio, M. & Sarpong, K.O., 2012, ‘Reducing fire threats to markets: Piloting community-based fire risk assessment in Accra’, Disasters (in press).

Parliament, 2011, Performance audit report of the Auditor-General on the preparedness of NADMO to manage disasters in Ghana, Parliament of Ghana, Accra.

Pelling, M., 2012, ‘Hazards, risk and urbanization’, in B. Wisner, J.C. Gaillard & I. Kelman (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction, pp. 145–155, Routledge, London.

Razzu, G., 2005, ‘Urban redevelopment, cultural heritage, poverty and redistribution: the case of Old Accra and Adawso House’, Habitat International 29(3), 399–419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2003.12.002

Songsore, J., 2008, ‘Environmental and structural inequalities in Greater Accra’, Journal of the International Institute 16(1), 8–9, 13.

UN-Habitat, 2008, State of African Cities 2008: A framework for addressing urban challenge in Africa, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), Nairobi, Kenya.

UN-Habitat, 2009, Ghana: Accra urban profile, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.

UN-Habitat, 2011, Participatory slum upgrading and prevention, Millennium city of Accra, Ghana, UN-HABITAT, Accra.

Vale, R.J. & Campanella, T.J., 2005, The richest city: How modern cities recover from disaster, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Wisner, B., Blaikie., P., Cannon, T. & Davis. I., 2004, At risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters, 2nd edn., Routledge, London.

WRC (World Research Commission), 2011, ‘Knowledge systems database on climate change in the three Northern Regions of Ghana’, unpublished data, WRC, Accra.

2. The exchange rate was GH₵1.943 per US$ on Friday 17 August, 2012, from http://fx-rate.net/GHS/USD/