EVALDIS

Evaluating local disaster management in Sierra Leone

Evaluating Local Disaster Management in Sierra Leone (EVALDIS)

The EVALDIS project uses participatory research techniques to evaluate and enhance subnational resilience to disasters and crisis in Sierra Leone.

EVALDIS represents a comprehensive assessment of the challenges confronting provincial, district and local disaster management across Sierra Leone.

It combines the use of Single Points of Failure concepts, diagnostics and methodologies, developed by the BU Disaster Management Centre (BUDMC), with participatory research techniques to evaluate and enhance resilience to disasters and crisis in Sierra Leone.

Funded by Research England's (RE) Participatory Research Programme during 2022, the EVALDIS project is one of the most contemporary research evaluations of the existing state of disaster management at the subnational level. The subnational level includes levels of governance below that of the national level - including provinces, districts, wards and local communities.

Research was conducted by a team from the internationally-acclaimed BUDMC, led by Professor Lee Miles, during 2022.

The project also had input from 259 national stakeholders as well as provincial, district and local disaster managers, climate change/action officers, and members of Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMCs). Tribal chiefs and volunteers from across the country have also participated in the research to enhance their own resilience to disasters in their everyday lives and among their local communities more generally.

In particular, the study included one-to-one interviews with national and subnational stakeholders, focus groups covering all 8 blocks (including 48 wards) of the capital city of Freetown (covering over 1.2 million people), and a dedicated focus group with National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) Provincial Officers, alongside peer observations of major incidents in the country during 2022. This included participation in responses to emergencies in Sierra Leone, such as a major fire that engulfed Susan's Bay in Freetown (again) in December 2022.

The aim of the project was to provide comprehensive assessment of the challenges confronting provincial, district and local disaster management across the country and is designed to contribute valuable research-based and evidenced recommendations that can help to shape the NDMA’s thinking and direction towards developing stronger regional capacities across the country in 2023.

This will ensure that leaders in the country are as equipped as possible to respond to disaster and identify single points of failure to protect communities, to prevent loss of life, and to build resilience.

The main EVALDIS Final Report was launched at the National Disaster Management Agency’s (NDMA) headquarters and endorsed by the Government of Sierra Leone on 10 March 2023. The Ceremony included representation from the Office of the Chief Minister and the NDMA’s senior leadership, as well as representation from provinces, districts and local communities. The report received wide-ranging and highly positive national attention and was discussed and reported on extensively by the national media across Sierra Leone.

A group stood outside smiling and holding up the EVALDIS report

A group sat around a table listening to Professor Lee Miles speaking

A gathered group including Prof Lee Miles holding the EVALDIS final report

A group sat around a table at the launch of the EVALDIS report

Background

BUDMC has been working in the region for almost a decade, supporting disaster management and recovery in the country, identifying single points of failure, and supporting the country in setting up disaster management plans.

Freetown, Sierra Leone

EVALDIS also builds on the extensive cooperation and success of the AFRICAB project, which led to a Government-endorsed AFRICAB Final Report, launched in September 2021.

AFRICAB had already delivered a Facilitators’ Guide to Disaster Management, which was introduced to across Freetown in 2020 to help those that remain constantly vulnerable to disasters, such as fires, floods, landslides and storms.

The EVALDIS project will also evaluate how the Facilitators' Guide is being used in Freetown to enhance the city’s resilience to disasters and crisis.

Participatory approach

EVALDIS ran throughout 2022. A distinctive feature of the project is that it included the creation of an EVALDIS Community Advisory Board (EVALDIS-CAB) and an EVALDIS NDMA Steering Group that ensured key stakeholders, and local actors and communities directly inputted into the design, implementation and outcomes of the project.

The Community Advisory Board group with Professor Lee Miles

In simple terms, EVALDIS incorporated the participation of not just influential policy makers but also provincial, district and local actors as recognised ‘knowledge users’ and to maximise the impact of EVALDIS on the ground.

The participants were highly receptive to the project and there is a firm basis and membership for further reflection and future action.

The work of EVALDIS will allow the Agency to access world class research and user impact findings that it can use to inform the development of regional capacity of the NDMA being implemented countrywide across Sierra Leone.

Research outputs

The project included the production of an EVALDIS Final Report, launched on 10 March 2023 and officially endorsed by the Government of Sierra Leone.

A striking finding of the report is that the development by the NDMA of regional capacity, consisting of 5 NDMA Provincial Offices and 16 NDMA District Offices, was universally regarded as a very welcome development in 2022. However, more work will need to be done to fully harness the benefits of these new arrangements.

The EVALDIS Final Report calls for a new NDMA Regional Strategy document for 2023-24 to support these next steps and offers 62 research-based recommendations and immediate action points (IAPs) that the NDMA should consider as the basis for the future strategy. The Report identified 12 thematic areas of resolvable Single Points of Failure and the 62 recommendations provide detailed practical measures to address them.

Read the EVALDIS Final Report

After the launch of the EVALDIS Report, the Government of Sierra Leone confirmed that the recommendations would provide evidence to support and directly input into the new implementation plans of the NDMA for new regional officers and offices across Sierra Leone in 2023-24.

EVALDIS will therefore ensure that the views of local communities are heard and help shape of the new expanding NDMA regional capacity across all five provinces of Sierra Leone.

The EVALDIS Final Report reveals – once again - the value of the focus on resolvable single points of failure as a methodology and how rigorous academic research can lead and shape viable policy recommendations that policymakers and stakeholders can regard as realistic and affordable options for Sierra Leone and African disaster management more widely.

Lt Gen (Rtd) Brima Sesay GCOR, Director General, NDMA - foreword to the EVALDIS Final Report

Societal impact

In 2024, the findings and methodology of EVALDIS were incorporated into a national disaster management constitution across Sierra Leone.

The project was cited and included in the new national constitution governing the workings and collaboration of local community disaster management committees (CDMCs) across Sierra Leone, encompassing wards across all 16 districts and five provinces of the country, and potentially covering over 8.4 million people.

The new constitution of the CDMC seeks to facilitate the capacity of local disaster management committees to enhance the resilience of local communities in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from crises and disasters.

The project was also profiled in a 2024 issue of the UK Resilience Lessons Digest, published by the UK Cabinet Office and the Emergency Planning College, focusing on the lessons learnt through the work in Sierra Leone and the successful partnerships with key stakeholders in the country.

EVALDIS team

Professor Lee Miles - Professor of Crisis and Disaster Management

Professor Lee Miles joined the Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre in September 2015. Lee is an international relations scholar, educated at the Universities of Lancaster, Birmingham and Hull, receiving his PhD in Politics from the University of Hull (1999), and awarded a Docent in Political Science by Karlstad University in Sweden (2004).

Lee has enjoyed an extensive career working in departments of politics and international relations (Hull and Karlstad universities), politics and communication studies (University of Liverpool), and business school settings (Lincoln, Loughborough and Bournemouth universities) in the UK and Sweden.

Read more about Professor Lee Miles

Isatu Joy-Carew Sesay - EVALDIS Country Facilitator and Researcher in Disaster Management

Isatu Joy-Carew is from Freetown, Sierra Leone. She holds a MSc in Disaster Management from Bournemouth University, UK (2021) and her distinction-level Master's dissertation was entitled ‘Evaluating Health Emergency Operation Centres in Sierra Leone: Learning from the 2014-2016 Ebola Virus Disease Response from a Single Point of Failure Perspective’. She completed her undergraduate degree with honours at Njala University in Sierra Leone.

Prior to the award of a prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship to study for her UK Masters, Joy worked at the Directorate of Health Security and Emergencies/Emergency Operational Centre, Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MHS) in Sierra Leone. While studying at Bournemouth University, Joy also worked alongside Professor Miles in delivering disaster management training at dedicated AFRICAB workshops to local communities in Freetown in 2021. After the completion of her Master's studies, Joy returned home to Africa. As well as being valued member of the EVALDIS team, Joy currently works as a Planning Officer for the Emergency Preparedness and Response Department, Directorate of Health Security and Emergencies, Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MHS) in Sierra Leone.

John Miles - EVALDIS Researcher in Disaster Management and Climate Resilience

John is a graduate of Bournemouth University, receiving his BSc (Hons) in Geography in 2020.

He has worked as a researcher at the Disaster Management Centre on several projects, including the AFRICAB project in 2020, and contributed as a co-author to the FCC Facilitators Guide to Disaster Management that is now in wide circulation in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

John has a particular interest in climate resilience, development and local government issues in Africa. He is presently completing a Masters in Climate Change and Development at the Centre for Development, Environment and Policy (CeDEP) at SOAS, University of London.

In addition, John has contemporary experience of local government, and he presently works for the Democratic Service at Dorset Council in the UK.

Jamie Martin - Associate Lecturer in Disaster Management

Jamie has been an Associate Lecturer with Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre (BUDMC) since October 2015. Prior to that he served 33 years in the British Army, rising to the rank of Colonel.

During his military career, he gained experience of working with foreign governments and international agencies, serving for three years as the Military Adviser to the Government of Sierra Leone and Commander of the International Military and Advisory Training Team (IMATT) in Sierra Leone (2011-13). He also served as a sector commander in a military observer mission in Mozambique (2014- 15).

Since joining BUDMC he has worked extensively on the development and delivery of disaster management education, training and exercises in the UK, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

Recently, he joined Professor Miles as a co-author on both the FCC Facilitators Guide to Disaster Management (2020) and the Final Report of AFRICAB (2021) and was an integral member of the prior AFRICAB project based at the BUDMC.

Martin Travers - Associate Lecturer at BUDMC

Martin is an associate lecturer at the BUDMC and holds a Master degree in Defence Studies (2007).

After a 35-year career in the British Army that included senior roles and notable deployments across the world, including Sierra Leone, Martin assumed the role as strategic advisor to the Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone (2020-2021). In this position, he provided leadership, governance and programme support to Freetown City Council (FCC).

He was a major contributor to the city’s COVID 19 response plan, to the creation of Sierra Leone’s first subnational Disaster Risk Management (DRM) unit and the review, reorganisation and expansion of the city’s Municipal Police Force.

Martin continues to work closely with partners in Sierra Leone as well as providing training and consultancy in disaster risk management (DRM) and security sector reform in Nigeria, Fiji and Guyana in 2022-23.

News from the Disaster Management Centre

25/01/2024

BU research incorporated in new National Constitution for Local Disaster Management Committees in Sierra Leone

The findings and methodology of a disaster management research project conducted by BU experts has been incorporated into a national disaster management constitution in Sierra Leone.

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06/02/2023

Bournemouth academics helping Nigeria prepare for flood response

Bournemouth University’s Disaster Management Centre is working closely with authorities in Nigeria as the country prepares for further flooding this year.

08/12/2022

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