A Great Babylonian Confusion: Terminological Ambiguity in Capacity Development for Disaster Risk Reduction in the International Community

Society is becoming increasingly dynamic and complex, and therefore more vulnerable. It is thus important that society is resilient in order to be able to protect citizens and critical functions in the wake of disasters. It has been suggested that disaster risk reduction (DRR) is key in establishing resilience, and that adequate capacity in DRR is vital to reduce the effects of disasters. DRR and capacity development involve many individuals and organisations, and previous studies have indicated discrepancies in how individuals and organisations perceive key aspects of DRR and capacity development. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential for misunderstanding of the key concepts of DRR and capacity development, focusing on a homogeneous group of international experts and on documents from nine capacity development projects for DRR. Thirty-five qualitative interviews and content analysis of the project documentation revealed substantial conceptual ambiguity, indicating significant differences in the way in which the respondents perceive and define key concepts. The findings also showed that there is still a gap with respect to how these concepts are understood and communicated in the project documentation. This high degree of terminological ambiguity is likely to cause misunderstanding and have a negative impact on the effectiveness of capacity development projects for DRR.