LECTURE 6

COMMUNITY BASED DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Professor Dr. Md. Ismail Hossain

Department of Social Work
SUST, Sylhet
Introduction

 Sustainable development and disaster reduction are essential

preconditions for each other.
 Reason-
 hamper the progress and achievements of sustainable development.

 physical infrastructure we are constructing itself constitute a source

of risk in the event of future disasters.

 For instance- in the case of earthquakes, where majority of victims

are killed by their own collapsing houses.
 Cont..
 From the perspectives of environmental degradation, human
intervention and security aspects, disaster management is a
pressing issue.
 The approach seeks communities at risk get engaged in all of its
phases: prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and
recovery.
 In order to build disaster-resilient communities, they first need to
be empowered so that community members can cope with the
adverse effects of natural hazards.
 This is the approach to achieving sustainability in dealing with
natural disaster risks.
 Cont..

 United Nations Centre for Regional Devel

opment (UNCRD)
is carrying out various community-based
programmes to establish disaster prevention
as an essential component of sustainable
development.
 Activities include-
 improvement in the safety levels of core
community facilities such as schools
 dissemination of best practices in disaster risk
management at the community level
 formulation of integrated programmes for
sustainable development through disaster risk
management initiatives
Why Community Based Disaster Management?

 Over the past decades, economic losses and number of people

affected by natural disasters have increased more rapidly than
both economic and population growth.
 The impacts of the disasters are deeply related with the socio
economic conditions, tradition, culture, and climate of the
communities.
 To minimize the damages caused by disasters, various efforts
have been taken by government, international communities
including donor agencies.
 It has been observed that many of the disaster management
programmes have failed to be sustainable at local level after the
completion of the project.
Cont..

 A critical element of sustainable disaster management is

communities’ participation in these activities.
 The most common elements of community involvement are-
 partnership,
 participation,
 empowerment
 ownership by the local people
 The emphasis of disaster management efforts should focus
on communities and the people who live in them.
 Unless the disaster management efforts are sustainable at
individual and community level, it is difficult to reduce the
losses and scale of the tragedy
 Cont..

 Through these community–based activities, people should be

able to participate along side government officials and experts
group as the direct stakeholders of these activities.
 People should own problems, consequences and challenges of
any mitigation and/or preparedness initiative, it is necessary to
take people’s involvement further, into policy and strategy.
 This process induces sense of ownership to the people which
results in their continuous engagement and long term
commitment to these activities.
Thus involvement of communities is important in both pre-
disaster mitigation and post disaster response and recovery
process.
Community Based Disaster Management (CBDM)

 Most of the disaster response can be characterized as command

and control structure and top down approach.
 Community Based Disaster Management (CBDM) approach -
 Promotes a bottom-up approach working in harmony with the top down
approach, to address the challenges and difficulties.
 Local communities must be supported into analyzing their hazardous conditions,
their vulnerabilities and capacities.
 People at the community level have more to lose because they
are the ones directly hit by disasters, whether major or minor.
On the other hand, they have the most to gain if they can reduce
the impact of disasters on their community.
This concept gave rise to the idea of community-based disaster
management where communities are put at the forefront.
Community Based Disaster Management Approach

 CBDM approach provides opportunities for the local –

 to evaluate their own situation based on their own experiences.
 local community not only becomes part of creating plans and decisions
but also becomes a major player in its implementation.
 CBDM does not ignore the importance of scientific and risk assessment
and planning.

 CBDM approach acknowledges that as many stakeholders as

needed in the process, with the end goal of achieving
capacities and transferring of resources into the community.
Case studies:

 United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCR

D)
launched a three-year project on titled “Sustainability in
Community Based Disaster Management” in 2002.
 To understand the gaps in the community initiatives, and to
take corrective actions in future.
 In order to identify the key factors for successful CBDM, six
case studies were chosen in the Asian region targeting three
specific hazards:
 Cyclones (India and the Philippines),
 Earthquakes(Indonesia and Nepal)
 Floods(Bangladesh and Cambodia)
 Cont..

Followings were found as key factors for enhancing

sustainability:
 Risk assessment process involves participation of people.

 Genuine people’s participation within capacity building specific

focus on groups like women, elderly, children and ethnic

minorities.
 Well-delivered training inputs in accordance with the objectives of

the project and the needs of the community for training.

 Accumulation of physical, technological and economic assets to

reduce hazards and vulnerability.

 Integration of these projects into regular development planning

and budgeting to ensure sustainability

Afghan Training and livelihood Initiative

 UNCRD carried out “Afghan Training and Livelihood

Initiative (ATLI)” in Afghanistan from October 2002 to June
2003.
 Afghanistan is an earthquake prone country, and is located in one
of the most active seismic belts of the world.
 ATLI focused on developments guidelines for earthquake safe
construction practices, training of masons and engineers, and
construction of model houses.
 These activities aimed to empower the communities with their
active participation in this process.
 These efforts altogether develop human resources, provide
sustainable livelihood and are linked to the long term recovery of
the country.
Patanka New Life (PNY) Plan

 After the Gujarat earthquake of Janaury 2001, PNY was

initiated as joint initiative of diverse including-
 government, non-government, academics and international
for community based effective rehabilitation
 The aim of the initiative was-
to train and empower local masons and communities with proper
earthquake-safer technologies focusing on local tradition and culture.
to ensure confidence building and long-term use of traditional
technologies.
There were two major components of the initiative-
construction
and rehabilitation of model village
 training and confidence building of communities through
demonstration
Cont..

 The initiative was successful, especially in terms of

community involvement and ownership.
 The initiative was considered a successful model for
sustainable community recovery.
 The PNY was conceived as a model program right from its
inception stage.
 It sought to empower the affected community to the extent
that they are sufficiently resilient against future disasters.
School Earthquake Safety
Initiative
 United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD)
is, currently, promoting School Earthquake Safety Initiative
through a project named-

 “Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes”

jointly with UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UNDESA) in Asia-Pacific region.

 The project aims to make schools safe against earthquakes

and build disaster- resilient communities through self-help,
cooperation and education.
Cont..
 The project includes-
 retrofitting of school building in a participatory way with the
involvement of local communities.
 local governments and resource institutions, trainings on safer
construction practices to technicians, disaster education in
school and communities.

 These activities are carried out in Fiji Islands, India, Indonesia

and Uzbekistan.
Cont..

 There are three major aspects of the community

empowerment in earthquake disaster risk management
through this initiative:
 Seismic safety of school buildings

 Capacity building of communities

 Disaster education and awareness

 Lesson Learnt-
 Community empowerment and communication help to
achieve sustainability in CBDM.
 Community based action plans and training improves
community's problem.
 Disasters are unpredictable, it is important to maintain the
projects and people's awareness of disasters.
 Transparency of activities and dissemination of knowledge
and information encourage people's participation in activities.
 CBDM efforts need stable financial resources.
 'What is accepted by the community' is more important than
'what is necessary'.
 Institutionalizing the community and the private sectors can
result in more sustainable disaster management programmes
References
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-26VztBoeo