Local leaders should be empowered to take their own steps towards disaster risk management for their communities. Armed with knowledge of local cultures, norms, and the impacts of previous disasters, they play an essential role in bridging the gap between community and sub-national or national Government.

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) organized a Local Leadership Forum in 2018 to present and discuss experiences and examples on enhancing community resilience through leadership. The Forum was organized prior to the 14th Regional Consultative Committee on Disaster Management (RCC) meeting.

The forum also provided an opportunity to launch a Cookbook holding the key ingredients on designing, planning and implementing community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) activities.

These key ingredients are the results of an evaluation of case studies as well as various workshops that provided local leaders with an opportunity to share their experiences and identify common success factors in CBDRM. The final Cookbook draws out critical ingredients as well as practical examples of how these ingredients can be put into practice.

The Cookbook was launched as part of a Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR) and United States Agency for International Development Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID-BHA), formerly USAID-OFDA, supported program, implemented in partnership with 9 organizations at regional and national levels.

ADPC, as a regional partner to the program and Secretariat to the RCC, will continue to leverage the RCC as a platform as a critical entry point to bring forward local voices to the regional level.

Click here to learn more about the Cookbook.