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.
