Drought Cycle Management

Question 1

What is drought cycle management (DCM)?

Answer 1

During the late 1980s and 1990s, drought became increasingly accepted as a normal occurrence in pastoral/ dryland areas and not a rare or intrinsically disastrous event. The DCM model acts as a guide to development agencies supporting pastoral communities in planning for and responding to droughts. By putting the drought cycle as the central reference point, it ensures that appropriate interventions are implemented before, during and after droughts. This ultimately reduces the risks and consequences of drought.

Question 2

What are the four phases of the DCM model?

Answer 2

four warning phases: normal, alert, emergency,
and recovery.

Question 3

What are key elements of working with the DCM?

Answer 3

• Study livelihood
• Determine key vulnerabilities and capacities
• Determine relevant interventions in all steps of the drought cycle
• Flexibility in approach

Question 4

Explain the different interventions at each stage of the DCM

Answer 4

• Mitigation phase: rainwater tanks, diversification of income, training staff, community organization, using camels better adjusted to dry climates to transport water and milk
• Preparedness phase: food storage, early warning systems, using animals to carry water
• Emergency response: de-stocking animals, health clinics, medicine and vaccines
• Rehabilitation phase: protection of wells, restocking

Question 5

What are some critiques regarding the DCM model?

Answer 5

• It looks like it does not get better  as it’s a cycle we always expect another disaster
• Politics: are people able to take things in their own hands? Do people get agency?
• The distinction between the different phases is sometimes hard to make

Question 6

Alternative: Disaster risk management helix. Why useful?

Answer 6

• Moves away from the closed loop:
• Be flexible enough to factor in underlying root causes of vulnerability and drivers of disaster risk
• Acknowledge the role of complex systems

Question 7

Alternative: Disaster risk management helix. What is it?

Answer 7

Provides a basis to develop a conceptual diagram that would better encapsulate more of the important dimensions and factors that the traditional “disaster cycle” struggles to portray. A “helix” (corkscrew)-shaped strand may be a positive way forward as it can be multi-scalar, uneven, non-repetitive and unstable while still being a continuous function.