Insights on social learning and collaborative action plan development for disaster risk reduction: practicing Yonmenkaigi System Method (YSM) in flood-prone Mumbai

Recent decades have seen an increasing recognition and consensus among researchers and planners in disaster management in the need to foster social learning through public participation, to promote deliberative interaction among stakeholders in order to work together build a relationship to attain a collective action. However, the current participatory methods in disaster management are limited to awareness building, when actual plan preparation is the prime concept yet to be looked at. Additionally, in most of the cases, the local government authorities initiate their disaster management program to community by inviting them to voice their opinions and concerns. The major impediments of such participatory programs are the community's over-dependence on donors and governments (stakeholders) thus will consequently fail to give the community the sense of ownership of the problem. The challenge therefore is, putting the community in the driver's seat instead of only inviting them for consultation on an existing plan about a predetermined issue. In this paper, a participatory workshop method called Yonmenkaigi System Method (YSM) has been employed as a method to integrate the community's concerns and perspectives in the disaster management processes and to develop a collaborative action plan. The method was tested in a flood-prone slum community in Mumbai, India. In the first phase of the workshop, a SWOT analysis was executed to provide an opportunity for the participants to acknowledge each other's prior concerns, perspectives, and views. In the succeeding phases, the method then provided a platform to carry out this awareness in order to create visions through the identification of critical elements of the plan called Yonmenkaigi Chart. Finally, the sharing and debating of each other's visions and perspectives to prepare an executable plan for improved disaster preparedness. This entire process helps the participant develop an action plan based on their prior abilities, strengths and capacities instead of depending heavily on supports from external sources.