The marginalization of disaster response institutions : the 1997-1998 El Nino experience in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

Cover title

Includes bibliographical references

Spiral bound

The South American countries of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia have now experienced two major El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events in the past 17 years. The first was in 1982-1983. The recently concluded second was in 1997-1998. Briefly reviewing the lessons learned/not learned (mostly not learned) from the 1982-1983 ENSO, this study 1) focuses on the most recent ENSO's impacts and governmental-institutional response in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and 2) assesses likely institutional readiness for the next ENSO. The principal finding is that while the civil defense organizations in the respective countries were the nominal "national emergency organizations" at the outset of the most recent ENSO, each was rapidly pushed to the sidelines ("marginalized") by one or more new but temporary governmental organizations charged with supposedly managing the response. The result was 1) confusion and duplication at the institutional level and 2) a serious loss of credibility and morale in each country's civil defense structure. This is hardly the combination one would seek for optimizing institutional readiness for the next ENSO. Finally, but again hardly a surprise, in all cases the 1997-1998 ENSO became a major domestic media and political issue. In two of the countries, the most recent ENSO became part of either official (Ecuador) or unofficial (Peru) electoral campaigns. In the third case (Bolivia), it became enmeshed in inter-party coalition politics