In her opinion for the BusinessWorld, Alma Maria O. Salvador examines community-based early warning and the corresponding shift from emergency response to preparedness.
Whilst she highlights and the importance of engaging local communities, and involving local citizens in policy formulations, she concludes that "local government actors play a significant role in institutionalizing community-based early warning systems; in activating local disaster risk reduction and management councils; and in promoting policy continuities beyond electoral and jurisdictional politics. While the involvement of the community is indeed an important feature of disaster risk reduction, it is no panacea."
Alma Maria O. Salvador, head of the ADMU Political Science Department, is a co-convener of the department’s Working Group on Security Sector Reform and Development.