Communities are at the frontline of disasters.
Over the last two decades it has become apparent
that top-down approaches to disaster risk
management alone fail to address the specific
local needs of vulnerable communities, often
ignoring the local capacities and resources. At
times this approach further increases the
vulnerability of the community. In response to
the limitations of this top-down methodology,
the community-based disaster management emerged
as an alternative approach, during the decades
of 1980s and 1990s.
The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)
believes that community action for disaster risk
management is a crucial element in promoting a
"culture of prevention" and creating safer
communities. Therefore, community based
approaches have been an integral part of the
various projects and programs of ADPC since mid
and late 1990s.
Under the Asian Urban Disaster Mitigation
Program this has been demonstrated in several
countries such as; Tongi and Gaibanda
Municipalities in Bangladesh, Vientiane City in
Lao PDR, Ratnapura and Nawalpitia Municipalities
in Sri Lanka, Hatyai province in Thailand and in
Cambodia. In Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam,
the Climate Risk Management team's work being
done on communication of climate forecasts to
farmers is another example. Pioneering work on
developing community based risk communication
strategies in Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam was
implemented under the Disaster Reduction Program
for Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam (DRPCLV) project
in 2002. Substantive work has also been done on
community level action planning and risk
communication under a sponsorship from Asian
Development Bank in Uttarranchal and Uttar
Pardesh states in India and in Cambodia and
Vietnam under "capacity building for flood
preparedness planning in the lower Mekong Basin
using Flood Information Products" project with
the MekongRiver Commission (MRC).
Community based disaster risk management is a
specific focus under the Partnerships for
Disaster Reduction in Southeast Asia (PDRSEA), a
project being implemented in seven Southeast
Asian countries since 2001 with financial
support from DIPECHO. The program has focused on
developing technical capacity of professionals
through designing and conducting various
training courses, facilitating sharing of
experiences, across countries and organizations
through newsletters, websites and email list
serves. The program has provided support to
national networks and led efforts towards
regional networking. Practical tools for
practitioners have been developed to support
community action; e.g. the CBDRM Field
Practitioners Handbook. Recently the focus of
program has been on Institutionalizing Community
Based Disaster Risk Management in the government
policy, planning an implementation. In this
regard the program is working closely with the
ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM)
and National Disaster Management Offices (NDMOs)
and practitioners. Regional level workshops were
held with the ACDM and CBDRM practitioners. In
the next phase the program is going to focus
more on the national, sub-national and local
levels in helping the government departments
develop strategies and action plans to support
community action.
ADPC's Community Based Disaster Risk Management
Course (CBDRM) was initiated in 1997 and so far
twelve international courses have been held. The
course has also been adapted to the national
context in India, Sri Lanka, Lao PDR, Cambodia
and Thailand. The course is currently being
adapted to the national level in Afghanistan.
The Community Based Disaster Risk Management
program of the ADPC intends to emphasize its
efforts on following aspects.
-
Institutionalization of the community
based disaster risk management in the
policy, planning and implementation of
the government ministries and
departments and the that of the donors
in target countries;
-
Implementation of innovative programs to
explore new dimensions in the CBDRM
practice;
-
Development of frameworks and tools to
support the work of decision-makers and
practitioners;
-
Development of databases and
publications to map the CBDRM practices
in various regions;
-
Development of new training tools to
enhance the capacity of practitioners;
-
Development of new training tools to
enhance the capacity of practitioners;
-
Continued support to the ACDM and other
regional entities for promoting CBDRM
practices.
