According to Arpana Tandon, the Senior Programme Leader at ICCROM, there is a huge difference in planning and preparation for disaster management to emergency planning which also affects response machinery. She remarked that most organisations tend to treat two scenarios as one occurrence. She stated that this type of thinking needs to be observed and adjusted for the ability to respond to the different risks accordingly. This critical observation shared by Tandon was during the recently concluded online forum on “Risks And Disaster Safeguarding For Audio-Visual Archives In Africa”.
The panel repeatedly regarded the greatest hindrance to risk management as a lack of understanding of the risk natures surrounding your environment. Arpana indicated that involving the local municipality during your disaster planning was one of the most critical and essential steps. Understanding where your hazard is coming from, how far it is from your building, and how it would reach your structure, including how you would react to the threat, is vital in disaster management planning.
The Senior Programme Leader also stressed the importance of “treating the root causes” by not focusing only on emergency planning but disaster risk assessment, your vulnerabilities which will assist you in creating targeted mitigation measures.
The online forum was an initiative by Broadcast Media Africa (BMA), in partnership with Apricity Consulting, to “Preserve Africa’s Sound and Audio-Visual Assets” by empowering industry practitioners to address the mechanics for ensuring adequate management of risk.