Constructing a common holistic description of what is valuable and important to protect: A possible requisite for disaster risk management

Effective disaster risk management is a requisite for sustainable development and it is paramount to include a wide range of stakeholders to manage risk in this context. Recent research indicates the significance of making ideas of what is valuable and important to protect explicit in any disaster risk management initiative that involves several stake- holders. The purpose of this article is thus to investigate if it is possible for a wide range of stakeholders to construct a common holistic description of what is valuable and important to protect. Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality in South Africa is used as the context for this study and its findings indicate that such common holistic description is possible there. The findings also indicate that although each stakeholder has intricate knowledge about the context, it is not until they come together and share their individual knowledge as the richer picture emerges. A picture that may not in any way be a perfect full picture, but nonetheless their common picture to build mutual understanding, commitment and effective disaster risk management initiatives on.