Including children in the governance of urban risks

Abstract

Although children are often taken as a target group in urban disaster prevention and management, they are seldom considered in terms of active participation in preparedness and response to emergencies. However, it is crucial to hear their voices in order to address their specific needs and vulnerabilities and harness their capabilities in terms of building community resilience. CUIDAR Cultures of Disaster Resilience amongst Children and Young People is a European project (funded by the Horizon 2020) that aims: (1) to understand children's experiences of disasters; the impact on their lives, their resilience and the longer-term recovery process; (2) to discover how children can best be supported in disasters and how to enhance their resilience to future emergencies; (3) to influence emergency policy and practice to better meet the needs and build the resilience of children and young people. This project is led by the University of Lancaster (UK) and has the participation of a Portuguese team from the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon. This presentation aims to present some preliminary findings of this project, in particular of the Portuguese case study. More specifically, this presentation will first give an overview of the discourses on the roles ascribed to children in urban disaster risk reduction, based on content analysis of prevention programs and disaster response policies and exploratory interviews with national and local stakeholders and policy makers in this field (civil protection at the national and local level, Ministry of Education).