Policy-level consideration on marginalised communities in the post-disaster context: A desk study

Abstract

Natural disasters have a disproportionate influence on the lives of those impacted, with the most marginalised often bearing the brunt of the repercussions. As a result, marginalised communities should be expressly considered in post-disaster policy development. While the international community has adopted the concepts of resilience and inclusion, marginalised communities are frequently disregarded in post-disaster management. There is a dearth of literature on the engagement of marginalised communities in Sri Lanka's post-disaster context. Moreover, the policies to support the marginalised communities need to be reviewed to explore the extent to which such policies are implemented to benefit the disadvantaged groups in a disaster situation. Therefore, this paper aims to review the existing policies to improve the engagement of marginalised communities during the post-disaster context in Sri Lanka. To achieve the aim, a comprehensive desk study on significant global and national policies was carried out. Through the desk study, the policies and frameworks related to disaster management were explored in order to identify the inclusion of marginalised communities in the postdisaster context. The policies related to marginalised communities were further explored in order to identify the inclusion of them in post-disaster situations. Finally, the study confirmed that a refinement of the policies in the Sri Lankan context is crucial. Furthermore, as a way forward, the study suggested assessing the current level of implementation of existing policies as well as barriers to implementation in order to increase the inclusion of marginalised communities in Sri Lanka's post-disaster context.