ADPC in Action
ADPC conducts Fire Safety and Bangladesh National Building Code workshop, 24 Jul The contingency team of ADPC Dhaka Office in Bangladesh and with the collaboration of the Directorate of Fire service and Civil Defence (FSCD) and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) organized the Workshop, under the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP). The keynote speaker of this Workshop was Professor Dr. Nizamuddin Ahmed, Head, Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).  ADPC made a presentation on “Fire Safety and Earthquake Contingency Planning” followed by an interactive Q&A session. Please follow the link for more CDMP updates in the Information bulletin for July 2008. This can be downloaded here . Updates from the Program for Hydro-Meteorological Disaster Mitigation in Secondary Cities in Asia (PROMISE) funded by the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA-USAID):  2nd Working Group Meeting, 15-17 Jul, Danang, Vietnam PROMISE held its second Working Group Meeting (WGM-2) at the Green Plaza Hotel, Da Nang, Viet Nam.  The event was co-organized with the Government of Viet Nam (through the national Disaster Mitigation Partnership and the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control) and Center for International Studies and Cooperation – Vietnam. The sessions were Experiences in Urban Disaster Risk Management, Vietnam; Technology Development and Transfer for DRR; Practices for Mainstreaming DRR in Urban Development; Networking and Partnership Development for Urban DRR; Planning and Implementation Process for Urban DRR; Governance and Urban DRR; and Sustainability of Program Activities. A field visit was made to the PROMISE-VN wards of Da Nang (in Cam Le district). Observations were made on: community-based emergency preparedness and flood disaster mitigation; ward-level emergency operation centers (EOC) set-up; small-scale disaster mitigation projects; demonstration of water-based search-and-rescue; and the flood early warning system under the Da Nang Committee for Flood and Storm Control. Participants were from the local governments of Chittagong, Da Nang, Dagupan, Hyderabad, Metro Jakarta and Kalutara; country partner organizations-Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre, Center for International Studies and Cooperation-Vietnam, Center for Disaster Preparedness, Aga Khan Planning and Building Society-Pakistan, Bandung Institute of Technology, and Lanka Jathika Shramadana Sangamaya Sarvodaya, and from networking partners and other interested organizations-US Agency for International Development / US Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance, World Bank-Urban Development Sector, and Ove Arup & Partners, the Ministry for Disaster Management and Human Rights (SL), and the National Building Research Organization (SL).  The meeting documents can be downloaded here.  Country project events are as follows: INDONESIA – PROMISE-Indonesia held a focus group discussion on 25 June with stakeholders to validate the results of the risk assessment for the Tebet sub-district.  They presented the risk map to technical working group (TWG) of the Jakarta Provincial Government and planned the CBDRR interventions at grassroots level, to begin preparations for the Town Watching methodology (a variation of the participatory risk assessment that had been used for urban areas), and to begin developing the emergency response plan for the Jakarta Emergency Operations Center (EOC).  PHILIPPINES – PROMISE – The Philippines had a project assessment on 2-3 Jul in Pangasinan. The objectives of the assessment were to see what went well and what needs to be improved in the PROMISE Project; the ways forward for the sustainability of the DRR in Dagupan City and beyond.  The assessment was attended by the captains for the eight project barangays, City Administrator Alvin Fernandez and members of the TWG, and CDP staff.  The outcome of the assessment will be included in the final report.  ADPC tests the developed standardized community disaster risk reduction training curriculum for field practitioners in South Asia 1-8 Aug, Islamabad, Pakistan In partnership with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies- South Asia Regional Delegation (SARD), ADPC has developed a consultation version of a standardized Community Disaster Risk Reduction training curriculum, which integrates community-based disaster risk reduction approaches and the RC/RC Movement's volunteering policy, strategy and methodology.  As a next step, ADPC Senior staff under its Disaster management systems team conducted the first of three curriculum testing in Islamabad, Pakistan from 1-8 August 2008 to review and verify the relevance and applicability of this curriculum. During this first stage of testing there were 30 participants representing a number of National Societies. The workshop sessions provided valuable guidance to further refine the curriculum and enhance the participants’ skills on risks reduction. Based on the outcomes of the these, ADPC with the South Asia Regional Delegation will jointly develop training supporting materials (trainer’s guide, participant’s guide training and IEC materials) for DRR practitioners within National Societies and other partner agencies in South Asia in close cooperation with the Federation Consultant.  This initiative will support field practitioners of the National Societies of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the IFRC office in Maldives in improving the overall quality and impact of the DRR training program outputs in South Asia. Additionally, the curriculum will be useful to other National Societies and Federation Delegations in other region as well as other agencies working in the South Asia region.