Re-designing social impact assessment to enhance community resilience for disaster risk reduction, climate action and sustainable development
This article proposes a redesign of social impact assessment (SIA) to make it more applicable to the field of regional and urban planning, and discusses the role SIA can have in enhancing community resilience to achieve DRR and sustainable development in localities. It argues that, to convert SIA into a tool that can inform regional recovery and development planning, a rethinking of SIA and of the role of SIA practitioners is needed. It expounds the SIA Framework for Action, enhancing it to be a community-based process focussed on informing regional policies and plans and decisions about the projects to be included in such plans.
Application of the SIA Framework for Action will help governments overcome the barriers to DRR and sustainable development. Enhancing disaster risk reduction (DRR) and community resilience are fundamental for sustainable development. However, cultural and political-institutional barriers hinder governments from progressing towards sustainability.