Disaster and Development Network (DDN)
Northumbria University
Ellison Building B201, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
United Kingdom NE1 8ST
www.northumbria.ac.uk/ddn
OutlineThe Disaster and Development Network (DDN) was established following the Northumbria
University launch in 2000 of the world’s first Postgraduate Programme in Disaster Managementand Sustainable Development. The DDN applies integrated research and learning to address
hazards, disasters and complex emergencies from a developmental perspective. The Network
research responds to themes of disaster reduction, sustainable development and resiliencebuilding oriented to addressing human security and wellbeing of individuals, groups and institutions
in crisis. The launch of the postgraduate studies, for which there are active alumnus of 20+
completed PhDs and 250 Masters, was accompanied first by expansion of research and external
engagement activities of the Disaster and Development Centre (DDC) launched 2004, renamed
the DDN in 2013. Much of this community are leaders in professional programmes of practice,research and policy making around the world from international, local and academic organisations
including other UK universities as it expanded. The Northumbria group is also host to the world
renowned Gender and Disaster Network (GDN) and has a history of spin off enterprises focussed
on disaster and development related initiatives.
The current DDN ongoing exploration of this interdisciplinary field helps to identify disaster anddevelopment solutions grounded in everyday life concerns or extreme conditions. Much of this isassociated with new understanding of the complex relationship between the underlying and more
immediate influences on instability, impoverishment and risk. The early focus remains pervasive,with expanded awareness cross-sectorally. This is driven by questions as to whether sufficiently
smart solutions are meeting the demands of human survivability. To this end the DDN aims torespond to disaster and development demands through innovative approaches. This is necessary
since increased knowledge about the nature and context of global and local threats exposes
persistent gaps between opportunities and consequent actions of science and technology, political
will and behaviour change for disaster risk reduction. A representation of the research, learningand cognition flow underpinning much of this work is represented in Figure 1. The image to theright is well-known from earlier years of disaster and development studies at Northumbria.

Figure 1: Challenge of learning and action in a disaster and development nexus

The DDN is located within a rapidly strengthening institutional environment. The University ofNorthumbria at Newcastle is the largest research and teaching university in the North East ofEngland, with over 38,000 students enrolled at undergraduate and post-graduate level including
over 500 PhD students. The University has been recognised by Times Higher Education as having
the biggest rise in research power of any university in a national assessment of research quality in
UK universities. The results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) demonstrate that
Northumbria University has made a major step forward in research, reporting the largest rise inresearch rated as world-leading and internationally excellent by the REF. The University has nearly
tripled its share of research rated in these categories, representing an addition to its previouslyachieved target of best New University, which it achieved four times in all and three times inconsecutive years. Its recent research achievements are thought to mark a major step-change forNorthumbria, positioning the University decisively as one of the fastest rising institutions in the UK
higher education sector, whilst creating a broad and robust platform for the next phase of its
research programmes.
Disaster, risk and development related research is predominantly coordinated from within theFaculty of Engineering and Environment from the Department of Geography being also well
networked across the wider institution including planning, design, social sciences and health. The
DDN is made up of staff at Northumbria University together with affiliated staff from institutions
internationally. The immediate Faculty has over 250 academics, 8,000 students and over 200
PhDs. It has research and innovation experience across a number of research groups in many
aspects of engineering, materials science, physics, maths, computing and physical and humangeography, including the Disaster and Development Network (DDN) led by Professor Collins.
Northumbria University has significant experience of managing and participating in larger projects
such as for example those of the EU, having been successful and/or involved in 11 FP6 projects,
from a total of 31 bids submitted; a 35% success rate. Northumbria is also involved as partner orcoordinator in 15 FP7 projects from 2009-2013.
Research Achievements and Challenges
The DDN has carried out research and development activity in 25 countries. It is also an accreditedorganisation for the process of the United Nations International Strategy on Disaster Risk
Reduction and related Global Platforms leading to launch in 2005 and ongoing post 2015. There is
wide ranging staff achievement in relation to research and contract research grants. An example isthe case of Professor Collins who has secured high profile grants related to the disaster risk
reduction and development area; that includes ‘The Meaning of Health Security for Disaster
Resilience in Bangladesh’, funded by the UK Research Council’s ESRC (£238,000); theDepartment For International Development (DFID) funded Infectious Disease Risk Management(IDRM) project (£360,000) and ‘Zambezi Valley Advocacy Project’ (£460,000), six British
Council/DFID projects related to people centric disaster reduction (£475,000) amongst others.
Under the Leadership of Professor Collins, the Disaster and Development Network (DDN) has also
lead a seminar series on Disaster Education funded by the ESRC involving collaboration with theemergency services and academia of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England. It has
carried out ministerial level policy debates on risk and resilience building in South Asia, East Asia,Southern Africa and Europe based on its research and public engagement. Since 2006 it hasorganised the annual Dealing with Disasters conference series attended by high levels of disasterrisk reduction representations globally such as United Nations Special Representatives to theSecretary General.

DDN research interests include:• Disaster Resilience and Human Security - including; Community Based Disaster Reduction,
Disaster Education and Communication, Sustainable Livelihoods, Natural Resources Management,Rights Based and Conflict Resolution Approaches.

• Health Centred Disaster Risk Reduction - including; Health Security, Infectious Disease Risk
Management, and Integrated Food and Livelihood Security.
• Wellbeing in Disaster and Development - including; Community Mental Health and Wellbeing,Social Care in Disaster and Development, Gender and Disaster, Migration and Displacement.
• Disaster Response and Adaptation - including; Integrated Emergency Management, Energy
Security, Relief and Restoration and Climate Change Adaptation.
These themes engage cross cutting issues such as environmental sustainability, unevendevelopment, poverty reduction, rights based approaches, civil society, living with uncertainty,
adaption to global change, emergency and humanitarian response. The DDN has conducted overthirty surveys relating to critical survivability and wellbeing using people centred approaches.
DDN carries out contract research in international development or disaster reduction forInternational Organisations (IOs), Governments (GOs), and Non-Governmental Organisations(NGOs) including DFID, UK Government Office for Science, Trocaire, World Bank, USAID, FAO,IFAD, UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR, Governments of Mozambique, East Timor, Ghana and Angola,
Stockholm Environment Institute, Care, World Vision, Save the Children, Agema, Agha Khan,Water Aid, GTZ, Mediae Trust, IFRC, Practical Action, Wageningen International, Family HealthInternational, ChildFund International, ELRHA, HIF, Norwegian Research Council, AXA, EuropeAidand various EU funding bodies.
The DDN also provides the elected Chair for the Enhanced Learning and Research for
Humanitarian Assistance (ELRHA) supported by UK Government, Welcome Trust and multiple
humanitarian agencies and Board Member for Integrated Disaster Risk Management Society(IDRiM) hosted by Kyoto University.
Amongst various editorships in this field, DDN currently provides an Editor in Chief to Journal ofGeography and Natural Disasters (OMICS) and Editorial Board roles for Disasters (Blackwell),International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier), the Journal of the Society for Integrated
Disaster Risk Management and the Journal of Health Population and Nutrition.
Examples of research achievements that inform the wider sector and contribute to achieving
Disaster Risk Reduction goals either individually or in a cross-cutting way include the following:•DDN research has focussed on how people in marginalised locations can control ecologicaland socio-economic risks. The risks frequently thought to be a result of climate change,
resurgent pathogens or physical instability has also been found to be exacerbated byintersecting socio-economic vulnerability and local systems of governance. DDN research
funded by DFID, ESRC, and NERC elaborated, in practical terms, the paradigm of disasterrisk reduction through enhanced community resilience. This is however now being driven
by the need to find solutions that can move well beyond the current impasse surrounding
the concept of resilience, itself inadequate to meet the demands of future generations.

•Examples also show how community self-organisation, sense of security and healthattributes can define resilience to disaster. Research supported by DFID, WHO, UNICEF
and other partners showed how risks to health can be reduced by improving local
management, allowing communities to play a major role in identifying and managing risk.
Whilst risk perception is usually guided by visible assessments, individual cognition andlocal context, community involvement in local governance has proven to facilitate collective
control and responsibility. When successful this contributes a step change to the way inwhich disaster can be reduced though engaging people in development. However, nopanacea can be derived from this finding. Instead the demand is often for even moregrounded approaches including development of corporate and social responsibilities.

•

Further projects, including those supported by DFID and the British Council, have shownthat whilst it is difficult to overcome natural environmental influences it is possible to reducethe ‘anthropogenic landscape’ effect of human activities that contribute to environmental
disasters and other risks. DDN research demonstrates the viability of community based risk
reduction approaches and roles of varied institutions in disaster prevention. Projects havefocussed on primary resources such as water supply, the importance of children in disasterrisk reduction and rights based approaches using participatory action research, such as forexample in Southern Africa where increasing numbers of children are orphaned by HIV andAIDS. Other activities have involved more quantitative methods. Whilst this strand ofdevelopment from empirically based research significantly contributed, more in depth
analyses is recognising the need to rebalance with input from biological and physicalsciences. For example, one new project is looking at ‘infectious disease risk in UK trains’requiring microbiological input alongside socio-behavioural research. There are also
aspects of hazards research carried out nearby through a group of leading physicalgeographers.

Other DDN activities include links with emergency services and association with national andinternational bodies, or in hosting bi-lateral links such as for example the Japan-UK Disaster Risk
Reduction Study Programme, links with Southern African and South Asian academic institutions
amongst others.
Suggestions for the Disaster Research Roadmap
The themes outlined in the previous section will persist for the long-term and require further
concerted research to be able to build further on some of these initial successes. They are
therefore indicative of some key components of a disaster research roadmap. Further, global andlocal progress to goals that broadly align with disaster risk reduction aspirations have as yet
produces insufficient impacts globally. Whilst challenges are wider than brief comments would
convey here this amounts to a disaster research roadmap based on trying to find the means tohuman survival through research into:• Opportunity creation for civil society, particularly youth to be employed in shaping a future forphysical, economic and social environmental quality and safety, including energy futures andsocial resilience.
• Hunger and easily preventable disease eradication through action research and engagementin the implementation, perfecting and dissemination of already known solutions for foodproduction, water supply and health infrastructure.
• Disaster risk assessment and implementation of risk reduction actions at all levels, including
climate change adaption.
• Effective capacity building for rapid emergence of motivated leaders in sustainabledevelopment and disaster reduction particularly within commerce and industry.
• The educational imperative of innovative research environments for combined sustainable
development and disaster reduction activities.
• Accessible and people motivating information creation and communication channels.
• Integrated, action oriented science that is based on experiences of successful disastermanagement and sustainable development learning processes to steer toward wellbeing.
• The means to collaborative mechanisms inter-sectorally and cross-sectorally that may replacecultures of competition with those of cooperation, to advance agreed actions that can drive
sustainable changes in ways of life to achieve sustainability and risk reduction.

References:
Some indicative references for this document (indicative of one segment of DDN activity)• Collins, A.E. (2015) ‘Beyond experiential learning in disaster and development communication’in: Egner, H., Schorch, M. and Voss, M. (Eds.) Learning and Calamities: Practices,Interpretations, Patterns, London: Routledge, pp.56-76.
• Collins, A.E., Jones, S., Manyena, B. and Jayawickrama, J. (eds.)(2014) Hazards, Risks andDisasters in Society, New York: Elsevier. (23 chapters).
• Collins, A.E. (2013) ‘Applications of disaster risk reduction to migration influenced byenvironmental change’, Journal of Environmental Science and Policy, 27:S1, pp. S112-S125.
• Mavhura, E., Manyena, B., Collins, A.E. and Manatsa, D. (2013) ‘Indigenous knowledge,
coping strategies and resilience to floods in Muzarabani, Zimbabwe’, International Journal ofDisaster Risk Reduction, 5, pp.38-48.
• Jones, S., Aryal, K. and Collins, A.E. (2013) ‘Local-level Governance of Risk and Resilience inNepal’, Disasters, 37:3, pp.442-67.
• Collins, A.E. (2011) ‘Representations of disaster and development in the Sendai emergency’ inthe earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear meltdown in Japan: responses from thecommunicating disaster research group, ZiF-Mitteilungen 2, pp.12-14.
• Alam, E. and Collins, A.E. (2010) ‘Cyclone disaster vulnerability and response experiences incoastal Bangladesh’, Disasters, 34:4, pp.931-53.
• Williams, L., Collins, A.E., Bauaze, A. and Edgeworth, R. (2010) ‘The role of risk perception in
reducing cholera vulnerability’, Risk Management: an International Journal, 12, pp.163-84.
• Ray-Bennett, N., Collins, A.E., Bhuiya, A., Edgeworth, R., Nahar, P and Alamgir, F. (2010)‘Exploring the meaning of health security for disaster resilience through people's perspectives
in Bangladesh’, Health and Place, 16: pp.581-9.
• Collins, A.E. (2009) ‘The people centred approach to early warning systems and the ‘Last Mile’,in International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Focus on
Early Warning, Early Action, World Disaster Report, Chapter 2, pp. 39-68.
• Collins, A.E. (2009) Disaster and Development, Routledge Perspectives in Development
Series, LondonFurther information can be obtained from:
Professor Andrew Collins
Disaster and Development Network (DDN) / Department of Geography
Faculty of Engineering and Environment
201b Ellison Building
Northumbria University
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
United Kingdom
NE18ST
andrew.collins@northumbria.ac.uk