Incorporación de la gestión del riesgo de desastres a la educación gerencial: el caso de Mona School of Business & Management
| Autor | Indianna Minto-Coy/Lila Rao |
| Cargo | Mona School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica/Mona School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica |
| Páginas | 177-200 |
177
AD-MINISTER
Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management into
Management Education: Case of the Mona School
of Business & Management1
Incorporación de la gestión del riesgo de desastres a la educación gerencial: el caso de Mona
School of Business & Management
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to provide a background to and guide for mainstreaming Disaster Risk Man-
agement (DRM) into higher education and training institutions in Small Island Developing States (SIDS),
with the aim of increasing awareness and understanding of the complexity of DRM issues in business
and management, based on their general and specific vulnerabilities. SIDS are considered a special cat-
egory within the discussion on DRM, given a number of vulnerabilities generally and specifically. Further-
more, little attention has been paid to the business impact of disasters in such settings. It is proposed
that one major route to improving this situation is through the educational and training institutions, which
play a major role in shaping thinking and practices in such settings.
KEYWORDS
Disaster risk management; disaster risk reduction; small island developing states; mainstreaming; busi-
ness; SMEs; Jamaica.
RESUMEN
El propósito de este artículo es proveer un contexto y guiar en la incorporación de la Gestión del Riesgo
de Desastres (GRD) en las instituciones de educación superior y de formación en los Pequeños Estados
Insulares en Desarrollo (PEID) con el propósito de aumentar el nivel de consciencia y comprensión sobre
la complejidad de los asuntos relacionados con GRD en los negocios y la administración, teniendo como
base vulnerabilidades generales y específicas. LOS PEID son considerados una categoría especial dentro
de la discusión sobre GRD debido a la cantidad de vulnerabilidades generales y específicas con las que
cuentan. Se propone que una de las principales rutas para mejorar esta situación es a través de las
instituciones educativas y de formación, quienes desempeñan un papel importante en la conformación
del pensamiento y las prácticas de aquellos entornos.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Gestión del riesgo de desastres; reducción del riesgo de desastres; pequeños estados insulares; incor-
poración; negocios; PYME; Jamaica.
1 The paper was initially prepared as part of the “Disaster Risk Management in Business Education”
initiative organised by the Extreme Events Institute (EEI) at Florida International University (FIU). The
initiative is endorsed by the United Nations Oce for Disaster Reduction’s Private Sector Alliance for
Risk Sensitive Investment (UNISDR-ARISE) and supported by the Federal Republic of Germany’s Min-
istry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
2 Mona School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston,
Jamaica. Email: indianna.mintocoy@uwimona.edu.jm
3 Mona School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston,
Jamaica. Email: lila.rao@uwimona.edu.jm
INDIANNA
MINTOCOY
LILA
RAO
JEL: I, M, Q
Received: 22/06/2016
Modified: 25/06/2016
Accepted: 28/06/2016
DOI: 10.17230/ad-minister.28.9
www.eafit.edu.co/ad-minister
Creative Commons (CC BY-NC- SA)
AD-minister Nº. 28 enero-junio 2016 pp. 177 - 200 · ISSN 1692-0279 · eISSN 2256-4322
Indianna Minto-Coy · Lila Rao
Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management into Management Education: Case of the Mona School
of Business & Management
178
AD-MINISTER
INTRODUCTION: DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT IN CONTEXT4
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(IFRC) a disaster is any event which severely …“disrupts the functioning of a com-
munity or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental loss-
es that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own level of re-
sources”.5 Although disasters can result from natural hazards, Coppola (2015) argues
that they do not occur naturally but are instead a direct function of the vulnerability
of the aected region and its capacity to respond or recover from the damage caused
by a natural or man-made hazard. This capacity to respond has been said to be di-
rectly related to the economic capacity of the aected country (Freeman et al., 2003)
or, as in this case, region. Due to the reported fall out in economic activity that re-
sults from disasters, governments worldwide have focused on disaster management.
However this is usually a post disaster mechanism which places substantial pressure
on the financial resources of the country. Additionally, these strategies are usually ad
hoc and provide only short term remedies.
Recently there has been a paradigm shift to more emphasis being placed on im-
proving the resilience of those most vulnerable to disasters (Rogers & Tsirkunov,
2013). This new school of thought focuses on disaster risk reduction which involves
pre and post disaster activities aimed at mitigating the impact of disasters on society.
This change in thinking is fueled by the rising cost of disaster recovery and response.
It has been noted that although natural hazards are becoming less deadly as persons
in more economically stable regions have adapted their behaviour to accommodate
these expected events, there is growing inability of nations to confine disasters with-
in their own boundaries (Coppola, 2015). Furthermore, the proportion of poorer re-
gions being adversely aected is growing with the number of people aected by any
one disaster increasing. These trends are exacerbated by the increased frequency
of these natural hazards. In the past, countries could prepare for a specified number
of disasters at certain intervals, but they are now being forced to deal with multiple
hazards often within the same period. These changing patterns have highlighted the
need for more systematic and preventative approaches to responding to disasters.
Businesses, particularly those in the English-speaking Caribbean,6 have been
slow in planning for and responding to disasters. The economic fall-out from the
occurrence of natural hazards has negative implications for business continuity and
prosperity. For instance, UNISDR notes the impact on competitiveness and supply
chains and the associated losses (UNISDR, 2013). Small and medium sized firms are
aected dierently. However, risks associated with natural hazards are only one of
4 The authors are aware of the variances over the years, including the most recent shift from an emphasis on
DRM to Disaster Risk Reduction. However, DRM will be utilised as per the specific directions of the project
guidelines.
5 Available at: http://www.ifrc.org/ar/what-we-do/disaster-management/about-disasters/what-is-a-disaster/.
6 This refers to the Commonwealth Caribbean which comprises the following territories: Anguilla, Antigua and
Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica,
Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent and the Grena-
dines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Also see, (Minto-Coy, 2016b)
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