Challenges of transdisciplinary approach in disaster recovery management

Disaster risk reduction is critical in building a sustainable, resilient and inclusive society. Achieving such a society necessitates a transdisciplinary approach (TDA), that is, good governance with scientific knowledge-based decision making involving all related people in all disciplines and sectors working together. Need of such TDA has been well recognized in United Nations (UN) declarations and national laws but the case studies of disaster recovery processes of Ormoc and Tacloban, the Philippines revealed that the reality was not necessarily satisfactory nor encouraging in its implementation. Critical governance issues were found in such areas as coordination between central and local governments, residential participation, personnel continuity, information sharing, intra-governmental collaboration at emergency, lack of meaningful participation of researchers in decision making process etc. Necessities were identified institutional challenges such as transparency in decision making processes, laws to legally bind coordination, administrative structure to organize cross sectoral and disciplinary committees, efficient information flow, fostering community leaders, competitive points to researchers for practical contributions to society etc. Some policy recommendations specific to the Philippines and in general are added at the end.