Stakeholder (dis)incentives for supporting safer school construction
Disincentives
• Safety of self and school-age family
members
• Low risk awareness
• Acquisition of hazard-resistant construction
knowledge and skills
• Local jobs
Development
organisations
• Fulfilment of organisation’s mandate
• Visibility of organisation
• Lack of confidence in risk-reduction
techniques
• School disruption for retrofitting projects
• Mistrusting non-community members
• Lack of technical and financial capabilities
to invest in safer construction
• More effective long-term investment
• Lack of government or donor interest
Program
manager
• Desire for high-quality output
• Low risk awareness or disaster riskreduction knowledge
Local
government
• Protection of citizens
• Increase local capacity to deal with hazards
• Extra workload for construction supervision
and support
Central
government
• Protection of infrastructure investment
• Competing budgetary items, such as
teachers’ salaries, educational materials
and training
• Higher visibility in other actions or sectors
SECTION II: OVERVIEW
School
community
Incentives
• Perceived trade-offs with speed, quantity
and cost
• Use of safer schools as shelters
• Education continuity in emergencies and
disasters
• Lack of technical capacity in hazardresistant design and construction
• Safety and wellbeing of citizens, especially
future generations
• Lack of confidence in disaster riskreduction effectiveness
Technical
Professionals
• Income generation, analysis, site planning
and hazard-resistant design
• Lack of expertise in hazard-resistant design
• Academic interest
• Higher investment of time needed
compared to common (unsafe) practices
Policy and
decision-makers
• Infrastructure and community protection
• Lack of political incentives
• Community development
• Lack of funding and other resources
• Fulfilment of international commitments
• Donor dependency
• Lack of human resources to carry out the
program
• Moral hazard: may gain more political clout
by responding to catastrophic disasters
than quietly averting them
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