Community Information Centers

Information and Communication Technology has seen tremendous change in the way people think, live and work in developed countries. It has improved living conditions and has increased possibilities in commerce and economic development even in developing countries. However these technological breakthroughs have also increased the gap and divide between the haves and have-nots. The benefits of communication technologies, especially in the developing countries are limited to the few living in the urban areas. The poor have been marginalize and left behind in the technological advancement of the 20th and 21st century. Access to information plays an important role in development and poverty alleviation. It is also an indicator to the level of development of a country and community. We have also seen that only an aware community can prepare itself from any impending disasters. Therefore in order to see any socio-economic development and disaster reduction, it is essential that the poor communities are better informed. We must bridge this digital divide and take the benefits of these emerging technologies to the rural poor.

The concept of the community knowledge and information centers is not new in other parts of Asia and Africa. One hears several success stories of community information centers in the remote rural areas in India. There are also several success cases of taking technology to the illiterate. However this is a new concept in the Southeast Asian region. These information centers aim at providing the community access to the relevant information which can be used in their daily life in making decisions and taking actions, for e.g. a farmer may want to know the weather forecast so he or she can plan the crop, the current market price of the crop, or where he or she can take the animals to the vet etc.

Essential pre-requisites for the information centers

For these centers to be effective and sustainable it should suit and satisfy the needs of the community. Therefore whatever systems that are set up should fit in well with the socio-cultural make up of the community. The essential elements to consider are:
1.Research done using the participatory rural appraisal tools: Prior to setting up the centers a thorough study of the community needs to be done. This will provide the key to what systems will work in the community.
2.Identify the key players in the community: Once the key players are identified, one is able to recognize the human resources within the community. They then run these centers and take ownership of them. These community members can be trained. Training can also become a source of livelihood to these volunteers.
3.Provide development tools not technological demonstrations: Technology is to be used as a tool or means of attaining and providing information and knowldege to the community and should therefore be seen and presented as an aid to attaining this end.

Disaster ABC's

Monitoring - Monitoring is the continuous, periodic collection and analysis of information during project implementation in order to, “track” progress against plans so that adjustments can be made while the work is going on,; Identify and possibly measure change over a period of time; enable project implementers and their counterparts to be accountable.

Evaluation- Evaluation is defined as assessing what has taken place in order to improve future work; determining how far objectives have been achieved; making judgments about the effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the work. It makes use of information collected from monitoring and identifies key learning and action points for the future, other projects, programs and policy.

Participation - A Participation: is a process whereby those with legitimate interests in a project influence decisions that affect them. It connotes various types and degrees of involvement, control over, and decision making in an activity or project.

Disaster Trivia: Indonesian Forest Fire Disaster (1997/1998)

It In 1997/98 Indonesia experienced one of the worst man-made environmental disasters ever observed in SE-Asia. Fires started by men and driven by the exceptional El- Niño event evolved into uncontrolled wildfires which destroyed huge areas of rainforest and bush land. For months a cloud of noxious yellow grey haze covered SE-Asia, extending more than 4000 km from east to west and 3000 km north to south. Economic damage due to smoke alone was estimated to more than 1.4 billion US$ (Schweithelm, 1998). Release of carbon dioxide amounted 22-33% of the worlds carbon dioxide for one year. Fires raged on all major islands, Borneo, Sumatra and Irain Jaya. The total burnt area was 9.7 Million hectares (ADB, 1999). Some of the primary causes of the fire was said to be land clearing by concessionaires and development of logged over areas into pulp wood and industrial crop plantations, illegal occupation of land by farmers and social conflicts. Economic costs of fire impact were estimated to exceed 9 billion USD. Effects on wildlife, forest resources and biodiversity are only vaguely known due to a lack of comprehensive data. www.rssgmbh.de/ESA%20Fire/Intro/Fire_ind_6.html.

Fire Management

Forest fire management includes all actions which lead to the prevention, control and suppression of fires including recultivation of burnt areas. It is not restricted to forests alone and also includes the protection and management of other fires endagered areas, like pastures, agricultural or fallow lands and it has to consider a multitude of interactions based on the local environments and socio-economic situations. For preventing fires and designing action plans for fire prevention. For any effective management of fires the following information is needed:

analyze impacts on humans, wildfire, species richness and the forest ecosystems
estimate economic losses
revise current forest policy, regional planning and land use management
estimate contributions to greehouse warming

Stages in Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment and Action

Disaster Risk Management (DRM) as a conceptual framework focuses on reducting threats and potential lossea and not on managing disasters and their consequences. Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment and Action (PDRAA) is an element of CBDRM. PDRAA is both a dialogue and a negotiated process involving those at risk, authorities and other stakeholders. It is a process whereby all parties concerned collect and analyze disaster risks information, make appropriate plans and implement concrete actions to reduce and/or eliminate disaster risks that will adversely affect their lives. Where other risk management framework and practices excludes those who are at risk or potentially at risk, PDRAA put at risk communities at the heart of the entire disaster risk management process. Where other risk assessments stop at the determination of whether an undesirable event will occur, PDRAA moves on to the determination of people’s capacities and use their individual and community resources to reduce the risks to their lives. This is founded on the belief that local people can and will help themselves to prevent or reduce disaster risks.
There are broadly two steps in PDRAA. These are:
Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment
It is the process of collecting and analyzing disaster risk information. At the end of the disaster risk assessment process, all parties should be able to:
• identify the negative consequences that may occur due to the exposure of community’s vulnerabilities to existing hazards
• map the risks
• explain the causes of these negative consequences
• evaluate the likelihood of these disaster threats from occurring
Risk Analysis:
• prioritize the negative consequences
• decide on acceptable level of risk
• decide whether community at risk can prevent the risk, reduce the risk, transfer the risk (such as insurance) or live with the risk

Participatory Disaster Risk Management Planning
It is the process where all parties propose concrete risk reduction measures based on the following:
• vision of their developed community
• the ideal acceptable level of risk
• whether identified risk can be prevented, reduced, transferred or lived with
• their own capacities and other resources that can be generated outside of their community.

Every month, we will feature one of our community members in this column. This will give us a chance to get to know and learn from each other’s experiences. Would you like to be next month’s featured personality? Email us so we can send you our questions.

Our Featured Personality

Dr. Uy Sam Ath, Director, Disaster Management Department, Cambodian Red Cross- Cambodia
Dr Uy Sam Ath, is a medical doctor. He joined the Red Cross in 1991 on a resettlement program for refugee resettlement at the Thailand-Cambodia boarders. Since 1994 he has been the Director, Disaster Management Department, Cambodian Red Cross (CRC).


1. What are the disaster management (DM) activities and programs being undertaken by CRC?
CRC is currently implementing a Community Based Disaster Management and Preparedness Program, in Cambodia since 1998 with the technical and financial help from many national and international organizations. In these five years the project has had several achievements to its credit. To name a few here:
Over 730 volunteers trained
Over 100 Red Cross Volunteers have become trainers
76 micro-solutions have been implemented
Coverage of villages are presently 317, of communes 94, districts 23 and provinces 9 in all
Training Curriculum have been produced and upgraded

2. What do you think are the priority issues in Cambodia regarding disaster management?
There are several challenges in front of us. I would like to see many things changed and improved in managing disasters in Cambodia. For instance I would like to see disaster response and preparedness integrated into the NCDM national plan, strengthened information sharing mechanisms, clearly defined roles and responsibilities between the concerned agencies working in emergency response, a standardized data collection format for “damage and need assessment”. Other priority needs are developing contingency plans, systematic collection and updating of baseline data from hazard prone communities which needs to be made available to all concerned, extending the current early warning systems, building the capacity of the staff implementing disaster management programs and enhancing the HVCA knowledge to the CBDP trainers as well as to the community. In the future I would like to see the integration of, the small scale infrastructure rehabilitations and the non structure scheme (Livelihoods Assistance). I would very much like to see the consolidation of the existing communities and Red Cross volunteers, rather than expanding the numbers further. I am sure if we move in this direction we will surely be able to deal with disaster, have more resilient communities and reduce the catastrophic impacts of disasters in Cambodia.

Essential of Humanitarian Practice, Bangkok, Thailand, 18-23 April 2004
This course is run globally by members of RedR International. RedR Australia runs this course three times a year in Australia, with participants also from East Asia and the Pacific, with funding from AusAID and other donors. The course will cover: General Context of the Complexity and Diversity of Relief Situations, International Humanitarian Law, Managing the Team in a Relief Operation, Minimum Standards and Indicators, Understanding Gender and Cross-Cultural Issues, Role and Mandate of UNHCR: Protection of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, Personal Health, Behavior and Safety, Individual Security Issues, Dealing with the Media and Professional and Personal Development Planning for Relief Work

SPHERE Core Technical Sectors, Dookie, Australia, 16-21 MAY 2004
The SPHERE Core Technical Sectors course was piloted in the RedR International by RedR Australia and will be held annually in Australia, with funding from AusAID. It builds on the SPHERE Introduction to Humanitarian Principles & Standards Course and provides aid practitioners with further in depth technical knowledge. It provides aid practitioners with understanding of the five SPHERE Core Technical Sectors of Health Services; Nutrition, Food Aid, Shelter and Site Planning, Water Supply and Sanitation. The course covers the problems facing practitioners in each sector and ways to use the SPHERE Minimum Standards to improve the delivery of assistance to refugees and internally displaced populations. Further, it explains how the Minimum Standards assist in assessment implementation and evaluation of programmes.

For details contact: Ms Virginia Gough, Humanitarian Training Administrator, RedR Australia at vgough@redr.org.au, Phone: +61 (0)3 9681 6323, Fax: +61 (0)3 9681 6230. The training schedule is also available at http://www.redr.org/redr_australia/index.htm.

ITC Refresher Courses in 2004
The International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation ITC is the largest institute for international higher education in the Netherlands, providing international education, research and project services. The aim of ITC's activities is the international exchange of knowledge, focusing on capacity building and institutional development in countries that are economically and/or technologically less advanced. In 2004, the following refresher courses will be organised:

Course Geospatial Data Infrastructure for Central America (GDICA)
The Potential of Geoinformatics to Combat Drought, Desertification and Food Insecurity in Southeast Afric
Remote Sensing and GIS Applications for Integrated Water Resources Management in Sub-Saharan Africa (Flood Analysis)
Geospatial Information Management and Visualisation for Decision Making in Environmental Impact Assessment
Control Points Densification Used in Surveying and Cadastral Applications
Flood Risk Management in the Philippines
WebGIS and WebMapping
Combatting and Managing Disaster of Forest Fires using Remote Sensing and GIS
Active Sensors - Principles and Capabilities
Spatial Information for District Planning in the Context of Decentralisation
Geoinformatics for Watershed Management
Geo-information for Management and Planning of Coastal Lagoon Systems
GIS for Environmental and Land Use Planning in Southeast Asia
Geosystem Exploration and Engineering: A System Approach to Integrating Earth Observation and Geoscience Information

For more information ITC, P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands, E-mail: bps@itc.nl or visit the website at: http://www.itc.nl