Building disaster resilient households through a school-based education intervention with children and their families

This thesis investigates the development of a child-centred participatory household preparedness tool disseminated through three flood prone primary schools in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the last decade, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) education programs have been promoted in schools and at the community level; however, little research or practice has focused on household preparedness through the participation of children and parents. This thesis uses a case study approach to develop and then assess the effectiveness of a participatory household preparedness tool. A literature review exploring the involvement of children as agents of change in DRR, in addition to other sectors, such as health and the environment is presented, evaluating the lessons learned in promoting children’s participation in delivering change in their communities. Based on this review, and consultation with DRR education practitioners, as well as children and their parents, a household preparedness planning tool was developed. The tool is in the form of a poster that children and parents complete together as part of a school assignment. The aims were that the poster can be utilised in schools, can engage parents and can support children to influence change within the home. In addition, it was intended that the tool can be easily scaled-up and replicated in other locations. The study captured the perspectives of children and their parents regarding their experiences in contributing to and using the tool through a mixed methodology of family group interviews and questionnaires. The study revealed a significant increase in household preparedness knowledge and planning, i.e. identifying actions to anticipate disaster risks, assessing evacuation procedures, and emergency pick up procedures, for both children and parents. Furthermore, parents and children built consensus in developing a preparedness plan together, with parents noting the crucial importance of their children’s role and other household members in household preparedness and children expressed their interests in making the plan together with their parents. The research also demonstrated opportunities for application of the tool at-scale, including the development of a comprehensive preparedness toolkit, called PREDIKT. Future areas of research for further development of Child-Centred DRR (CCDRR) are also discussed. The thesis consists of nine chapters and is structured using a hybrid approach, consisting of four journal articles and five conventional chapters.