Importance of an awareness of cultural and community differences amongst disaster practitioners

Generally, participants recognised in this context that there is a need to ensure that those disaster and emergency services who communicate with the public have an appropriate level of awareness and training to respond to different cultures and communities: “Operators need to be well trained though, because if populations are different, approaching them needs to be as well” (G1; R3 - see source document for full reference), “We receive calls from anybody, even from foreign people, they might not speak properly, they might have issues understanding, and our operators need to be able to understand every single call. Italian people too, they often tend to be very technical with terms, but we ask them to keep it as clear and simple as possible” (G1; R6), “there should be two well differentiated lines of communication strategy, a communication for training that is carried out in what was once called “peacetime”, and a communication for emergency that should be very slender and simple” (G6; R5).

Cultural Factors: Languages, Communication

Hazards: Natural hazards, Man-made non-intentional hazards or emergency situations, Man-made intentional hazards

Disaster Phases: Response, Recovery

Types of Actors Concerned: National civil protection body, Local authorities, Government, Red Cross, NGOs, Healthcare and emergency services

Recommendations:

• Develop culturally aware disaster preparedness and response training
• Training programmes for citizens of all ages should be developed. These are necessary to increase citizens’ knowledge of and preparedness in case of disasters. The training activities should be organized on the basis of a training strategy and should take various forms, ranging from emergency drill to workshops