Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies ... - Unicef

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Section 10.
Case 14:
The Case Studies
Madagascar
Overview
Madagascar offers an example of an
infusionist approach to DRR across a
range of curriculum subjects which are
strongly influenced by the precepts,
principles and concerns of environmental
education. Climate change education
figures quite predominantly, a trend
discernible in DRR developments
in a number of African countries.
Introduction
In 2002 the Madagascar government promulgated a National
Strategy for Disaster and Disaster Risk Management (UNISDR,
2007, 86). A 2003 law established a Conseil National de Gestion
des Risques et Catastrophes (National Council for the Management
of Risks and Catastrophes), setting up a National Bureau
and national management policy which were approved in the
same year. Disaster risk reduction has since been integrated
into the national development plan, the Madagascar Action
Plan 2007-2012. In 2006 Madagascar also developed a National
Adaptation Plan of Action for Climate Change built upon the
increasing vulnerability of the island, the fourth largest island in
the world, to frequent and intense cyclones, floods and drought
(Northumbria University / UNICEF ESARO, 2011, 4-5).
By 2009, the government of Madagascar had made ‘significant
progress’ in the wake of the 2005 Hyogo Framework for Action
with the National Council (CNGRC) chaired by the Prime Minister
and meeting at least every three months, with the National Bureau
(BNGRC) operationalizing its decisions. DRR curriculum
development in the period of 2006 to 2009, described below,
flowered within this framework (Ibid. 5).
A 2009 political crisis that brought a military dictator to power
in Madagascar severely disrupted DRR developments due, to
some degree, to the suspension of aid in the new political situation.
Since 2009 DRR developments ‘are not the priority of the
government of Madagascar’ and substantive progress with
DRR is, more or less, in hiatus. The ‘prevailing political situation
limits UNICEF from taking DRR work upstream through advocacy’
although the crisis and instability allow the organization to
’push DRR through its emergency and regular programmes,’
including education (Ibid. 7-9).
The Hyogo Framework provided the impetus for the integration
of DRR within the curriculum beginning in 2005, with developments
intensifying in 2008 and 2009 as attention focused on
the impact of climate change. An Education Cluster was
established, co-chaired by the Ministry of Education and
UNICEF, its work underpinned by technical and training support
provided by the UNICEF Regional Office (ESARO) and the
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) (Ibid.7).
The immediate stimulus to action followed from Ministry of
Education participation in a UNISDR Africa regional training
workshop on DRR and Education held in Kenya in May 2006
which focused on making school buildings safe and mainstreaming
DRR into school curricula. Following the workshop,
an I Protect My Country from Natural Disasters project was
implemented from April to October 2006 from which the
curriculum development described below flowed (UNISDR,
2007, 86-7).
Curriculum Development/Integration
Environmental education in Madagascar has a long history
that is rooted in its ancestral culture. At the primary level it
Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries