Citizen participation as a norm to facilitate empowerment

Empowerment processes could be facilitated by the existence of (international) norms promoting citizens' participation/engagement in hazards management (e.g., as stated above, the Aarhus Convention of 1999, which promotes public participation in decision-making on environmental issues, or the European Flood Directive 2007/60/EC, which requires the establishment of public participation mechanisms to ensure citizens' involvement in the flood management cycle). We say "could" because, as shown in the three community empowerment practices documented by the WeSenSeit project (funded by the EU DG research), in Vicenza province-IT, Delft-NL and Doncaster-UK, these norms, which are not prescriptive, have a very slight incidence, even though such favourable regulatory framework represents at least an "enabling environment".

Note: See source document for full reference.

Cultural Factors: Rule of law

Hazards: Natural hazards

Disaster Phases: All disaster phases, Prevention, Preparedness, Recovery, Response

Types of Actors Concerned: All types of actors, Local authorities, Active citizens, Entrepreneurs, Media, Government, National research bodies, Red Cross, NGOs, Military, Law enforcement agencies, Healthcare and emergency services, European Civil Protection Mechanism, UN and other international organisations, National civil protection body, Non-active citizens

Recommendations:

• Improve disaster management processes through better networking and cooperation between public and private actors and a better understanding of the role which each of these actors plays in the different disaster management stages