Abstract

In recent years, disasters have become longer, more diverse, and more complex, limiting the ability to provide emergency, dissemination, and recovery support after a disaster. PHC facilities play a critical role in health emergencies and therefore must maintain their services during disasters. Communities need to be involved in planning, vulnerability assessment, disaster prevention, and mitigation activities. To this end, sustained community efforts are essential for the implementation and achievement of the district disaster management plan, and due consideration should be given to its long-term sustainability and generalizability. In this chapter, after describing the basic concept of PHC and why PHC is needed in disaster risk reduction, the challenges are presented from case studies of good practices by caregivers in the community. Without adequate financial protection mechanisms in the aftermath of a disaster, the impact on health and well-being can lead to health expenditures that can be impoverished in the short and long term. Universal health coverage is the most significant policy foundation for improving the health and well-being of all people and reducing the vulnerability of the most marginalized groups in society to disasters, and primary health care is a pillar to achieve universal health coverage. Our fieldwork experience shows that protecting community members from economic hardship requires that budget and funding duplication or lack thereof must be properly visualized. Similarly, many outsiders are paid or funded by the sending agency. However, community health workers and volunteers are often unpaid or underpaid. The incentives, benefits, insurance, and security of community health workers need to be considered in conjunction with the people’s economic hardships in the sustainable community.