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Applied Grants for Disaster Risk Reduction II Program Announcement BACKGROUND The ProVention Consortium is a global partnership of governments, international organizations, academic institutions, the private sector, and civil society organizations aimed at reducing disaster impacts in developing countries. The Consortium functions as a network to share knowledge and to connect and leverage resources to reduce disaster risk. Research in the field of disaster risk reduction remains dominated and influenced by academic institutions and international scientific organizations from the industrialized world. The advances made by these institutions during the last decades in natural, engineering and social science and technology development have substantially contributed to reducing disaster casualties in both the developed and developing world. However, efforts by Northern academic and scientific institutions to transfer existing technical and scientific knowledge to high-risk countries in the developing world have often been confronted with a wide range of obstacles such as a lack of technological absorption capacity, limited institutional capacity, insufficient qualified staff and absence of linkages and networks to successfully implement the programs concerned. Furthermore, as disaster vulnerability in these countries is strongly determined by developmental and socio-economic processes, more research on risk, vulnerability and capacity issues is urgently required. Overall, disaster risk management expertise in most developing countries is often scattered amongst different disciplines and sectors, networking between disaster risk management professionals in the South is limited, while financial, material and human resources allocated by national governments and donors to disaster risk reduction research is largely insufficient. In order to support innovative disaster risk management projects in developing countries, build up local research capacity and encourage young professionals (under 35 years of age) to become more involved in disaster risk reduction, the ProVention Consortium in collaboration with the World Bank’s Hazard Management Unit (HMU) launched in December 2002 an “Applied Research Grants Program for Disaster Risk Reduction”. Young researchers were invited to propose creative projects in three categories: hazard and risk identification, risk reduction and risk sharing/transfer. Sixty-five individuals and/or teams from 27 countries were awarded grants of up to US $5,000. Grantees came from a mix of institutional affiliations: universities, government, local and international NGOs and private sector. Each project was carried out under the guidance of a mentor who is a professional in the field of disaster risk management. The young professionals completed their projects in January 2004. After a series of reviews, fifteen projects were selected as representative of the most innovative and sustainableproject activities. Team leaders from these projects presented their findings at the “Global Symposium for Hazard Risk Reduction”, July 26-28, 2004 at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC. NEW FOR 2005 The ProVention Consortium is sponsoring a second round of grants to support research on innovative disaster risk management and encourage competent young professionals dedicated to reducing disaster risk in developing countries. Students and young professionals from developing countries are invited to propose creative projects and ideas. These proposals may include research projects, professional internships or professional development programs. Applications will be screened by a jury of ProVention Consortium partners. Awards will be made to proposals with the potential of making a significant contribution to the field. The selected projects will be awarded a maximum grant of US $5,000 and must be completed within nine months of award under the guidance of a faculty advisor or a mentor who is a disaster professional. The program is being implemented and managed by regional partner organizations:
PROPOSAL THEMES & OBJECTIVES Proposals should focus on the links between disasters, development and the environment, and should fall into three general categories: (i) risk identification and analysis, (ii) risk reduction and (iii) risk sharing/transfer, with preference to be given to activities in the latter two categories. Field work is encouraged, and dissemination of results and community feedback must be part of each project. It is critical that proposals include linkages to relevant local institutions, whether they are non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), or government departments. Proposals may also look at lessons learned from past or ongoing activities and should have a multi-sectoral/multi-dimensional approach.
Any effective strategy to manage disaster risk must begin with an identification and analysis of the nature and extent of risk that characterizes a particular location. This includes information on the frequency, magnitude and severity of past hazards, data on the degree of exposure of a population and its build environment to such hazards and identification of local capacities and resources to withstand shock and stress. The process also includes analysis of the underlying causes of why these elements are at risk. Risk identification and analysis informs decision makers on where to prioritize risk management efforts and how to design projects that will effectively reduce the impacts of potential disaster events. A more comprehensive analysis of disaster data and understanding of the economic, financial and social impacts of disasters on a country or community can help to demonstrate the importance of including risk reduction in development plans and programs. Assessing risk is also a key component of the process of measuring the potential and actual benefits of disaster reduction. Risk monitoring is critical in ensuring that risk reduction programmes effectively reduce risk.
Risk reduction involves measures to avoid (prevention), limit (mitigation) or take precautions against (preparedness) the destructive and disruptive effects of hazards and thus lessen the potential impact. The implicit focus of risk reduction is vulnerability reduction, which includes a wide range of social, economic, environmental and technical issues. Risk reduction includes a range of structural measures, such as flood defenses or safe building design, and non-structural measures, such as the development of early warning systems, the regulation of land use or the sensitization of populations at risk. In order to be truly effective risk reduction cannot be limited to the realm of disaster risk management but has to be fully integrated in development policies and planning, climate change adaptation efforts and the post-disaster recovery process.
Financial and economic impacts of disasters can be reduced through risk transfer. While these risks can never be completely eliminated, they can be shared. Individuals and groups can transfer the financial risk which they are unable or unwilling to absorb to a larger collective with greater economic means, for instance from an individual household to a community or company, or from a national government or company to the global markets. The most obvious risk transfer tool is insurance, which for low-income households in developing countries is often called micro-insurance. Further arrangements such as informal community pools, social protection funds and innovative schemes based on weather indices are similarly useful for transferring and thus managing the financial impacts of disasters. Risk transfer must also be used to promote risk reduction activities. CRITERIA FOR ELIGIBILITYProposals will be reviewed to ensure that they conform to the following criteria:
PROPOSAL GUIDELINES Winning proposals will be those which best present ideas that address the ProVention Consortium’s priorities in reducing disaster risks in developing countries in a sustainable way. When creating your proposal keep in mind that the design and implementation components should include the following principles and outcomes: Design of the idea should be:
Implementation of the idea should have:
Proposals will be evaluated for their innovativeness, feasibility, project design, dissemination plan and utilization potential. Final decisions may also reflect the need for regional coverage and a desired mix of project types. The regional centers reserve the right to possibly assign an additional mentor and/or develop projects links with relevant and interested partner institutions within the country of the proposal. PROPOSAL FORMAT IN GENERAL
IN SPECIFIC Your proposal outline should cover the following: 1. TITLE of your idea: This will eventually become the project name. 2. APPLICANT information and contact details : Include details on your nationality, date of birth, and a brief summary of your academic background and/or professional experience. If applying as part of a team, provide listed information on all team members and indicate who is the team leader. Please submit proof of citizenship (i.e., copy of passport photo page). Full contact information including email address if available must be provided. 3. GEOGRAPHICAL coverage Indicate whether the project includes activities in a specific country, several countries (name them), a region or if they are global in scope. 4. FOCUS area Please indicate one theme which is best addressed by your idea.
5. KEYWORDS To facilitate future retrieval, please select a maximum of three (3) keywords that are most applicable to your idea. 6. DESCRIPTION of your idea (not to exceed 2 pages or 1000 words)
7. Project COST: Provide a brief statement of the idea's need for funding in order to achieve the stated objectives. If the funds are to be leveraged with those from other sources, differentiate between funding requested from the ProVention Consortium and funds coming from others. The budget breakdown should cover these items
8. ADVISOR or MENTOR Each applicant is required to name a faculty advisor or professional mentor and provide an endorsement letter from that person and his/her administrative supervisor. There is no requirement that such work be part of a master’s thesis or Ph.D. dissertation project, although this is allowable. If the work is to be part of a thesis or dissertation project, please indicate that. PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ANY ADDITIONAL MATERIALS WITH YOUR PROPOSAL. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION The ProVention Consortium prefers receiving proposals via email. Proposals must be received by 15 MAY 2005 using our e-mail: Grants2 <dmc@engr.wisc.edu> If you do not have access to e-mail or the internet and are applying by paper mail, you must allow for additional processing time, so your proposal must be received by - 1 May 2005 at this address: ProVention Consortium Grants University of Wisconsin – Madison Disaster Management Center 432 North Lake Street Madison , WI 53706 USA Grant awards will be announced o/a - 1 August 2005
This information is also available at our web site at www.proventionconsortium.org |
