KENYA TECHNICAL TRAINERS COLLEGE
UNIT OF COMPETENCY: GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
TASK: GROUP ASSIGNMENT
CONFLICT AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Introduction
A conflict is a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.
It
includes “armed
conflicts” as well as “non-armed conflicts”. It covers many diverse situations, including
situations of violence that destabilize societies and economies. A disaster
means a serious
disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events
interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of
the
following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts.
Conflict management refers to actions taken to contain, or at the very least mitigate, ongoing
violent conflict by limiting the scale of destruction and suffering, or any potential spillover
effects into other geographic areas. On the other hand, disaster management is/how people deal
with the human, material, economic or environmental impacts of said disaster, it is the process of
how people “prepare for, respond to and learn from the effects of major failures”. Though often
caused by nature, disasters can have human origins.
The literature and the practice of disaster risk reduction tend to be overwhelmingly concerned
with the prevention, mitigation, and reduction of risk of natural hazards. Yet at the local
community level, people face the risk of both natural disasters and man-made crises, and they
recognize both kinds of risk. In terms of policy and practice, dealing with these two categories of
hazards is often rather separate. In institutional terms, both national governments and various
international and non-governmental agencies often attempt to address both sets of concerns i.e.
conflict and natural disasters, but often in very separate ways. In addition, much of the emphasis
on conflict is not necessarily on risk reduction, but rather on responding to conflict once it has
erupted, or on recovery (and in many cases, on stepped-up law enforcement).
Conflict and Disaster Management 1
Prevention or mitigation of conflict has not received the attention that prevention or mitigation of
a “natural” disasters has. In recent years, there has been a major emphasis on reducing the risk of
disasters. Some organizations have set a goal of allocating 10% of funding for disaster response
specifically for prevention and risk reduction, but this spending is devoted to the reduction of
natural risks.1 However, the actual allocation of funds for humanitarian response goes
disproportionately into emergencies caused by conflict.
Kenya is a country that faces multiple hazards. Drought has been the dominant hazard, affecting
large parts of the country in 2000, 2005–06, 2009, and 2011. Floods and other natural disasters
have been a frequent occurrence in some parts of the country. Conflict and human made crises
are also present, both pastoral and election-related violence are common forms of conflict in
Kenya. In the aftermath of very closely contested elections in 2007 (the results of which, many
observers and citizens thought, were not adequately verified), there was widespread violence,
killing, and displacement and the destruction of livelihoods that accompanied these. There had
been election related violence in Kenya before, but the extent of the violence in early 2008 was
unprecedented. Over 1,000 people were killed, with estimates of the number of people displaced
running as high as 300,000 – 400,000.
Objectives of disaster and conflict management
The objectives of disaster and conflict management include:
Reduce the risk of disasters caused by human error
Deliberate destruction, and building or equipment failures
Be better prepared to recover from a major natural catastrophe
Ensure the organization’s ability to continue operating after a disaster
Recover lost or damaged records or information after a disaster
Conflict, post-conflict, and fragile settings
Conflicts in various forms; from large-scale military confrontations to rebel insurgencies,
election violence or popular uprisings, for instance – continue to rage in societies around the
world. These conflicts have a profound
impact on employment and income-generating
opportunities, and on decent work. They lead to a breakdown of the rule of law, destroy livelihoods,
displace populations, and disrupt education.
Conflicts also tend to lead to an expansion of the
