Case study: Disaster risk reduction field sessions in Southeast Asia

drr-field-session-southeast-asia

Purpose:

This document provides an overview of the disaster risk reduction field sessions conducted in Southeast Asia.

Overview:

A DRR Field Session is carried out over ten days. Participants spend three days in the field and seven days in the classroom. These ten days are made up of practical work, group activities and theory, in a workshop setting. The entire process promotes peer learning and enhances skills based on logic and reality.

There are two scenarios in every field session. The first is a case study and the second is a real situation – one that places participants directly in contact with a community that needs assistance. These scenarios are designed to test and sharpen a participant’s skills and knowledge about:

  • comprehensive assessment techniques
  • collected information and their systematic organization
  • translating processes from vulnerabilities into potential capacities
  • developing related strategies, and writing a plan of action

Usage: Guidance for implementation

Audience: National Society staff and volunteers

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/DRR_FieldSession_CaseStudy_SEA-1.pdf

VCA Lessons learned and recommendations

vca-lessons-learned-big

Purpose:

The lessons learned document describes the lessons learned, recommendation and good practice from National Societies.

Vulnerability and capacity assessment (VCA) has become widely used by many National Societies over the past ten years. Between 2003 and 2005, the VCA process was evaluated and revised by the International Federation’s secretariat. In 2005, a practitioners’ forum was organized to review and collect good practice and lessons learned.

Overview:

Community-based work has a very powerful effect on the National Societies involved. It is clear that VCA:

  • often revitalizes the National Society at branch level, and sometimes at national level;
  • changes people’s attitude towards the Red Cross Red Crescent in a positive way;
  • frequently brings in more volunteers, who are often motivated to be “social volunteers” (i.e., without specific specialities);
  • can alter relationships with government and other institutions in a positive way;
  • brings more respect for and better integration of the Red Cross Red Crescent in the community, increasing the potential for better partnerships;
  • makes the National Society realize that it can integrate existing programmes more effectively;
  • can reduce the artificial barriers between work on health, first aid, water and sanitation and disaster preparedness;
  • means the National Society becomes more capable of working with people rather than for them;
  • helps fulfill the mission of assisting the most vulnerable people through the power of humanity.

 

On the other hand, it was noted that:

  • VCA always raises the expectations of people in the community, so it must be matched by action and projects that meet at least some of these expectations soon after the investigation is carried out;
  • more volunteers mean increased demands for training and integration that the National Society must meet;
  • links with the political system are sometimes awkward: local politicians or even governments can hijack VCA in order to boost their own agendas;
  • donors sometimes use VCA (and PCD) funding to pursue their own priorities rather than those of the National Society. As a result, National Society action may be diverted into activities that attract foreign funding for VCA and PCD, rather than focusing on their own priorities. This can increase dependency on donors, when in fact VCA should be about enhancing the participation and motivation of people in communities.

Usage: Guideline for implementation

Audience: National Society staff and volunteers

For the other series of VCA guides:

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Download: http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Publications/disasters/vca/llearned-recommendations-en.pdf

VCA Training Guide

vca-training-guide-big

Purpose:

The training guide offers instructions for training Red Cross Red Crescent staff and volunteers in implementing a VCA, through classroom training and more directly, through ‘learning-by-doing’.

The purpose of this training guide is to provide VCA facilitators with the necessary tools to train those who will be implementing the actual VCA. It is designed to enable volunteers with little or no experience of community-based participatory information gathering to complete a successful VCA, under supervision.

These are to be used along with the VCA toolbox, which sets out and explains the various research tools.

Overview:

The guide includes instructions and suggestions to help volunteers understand:

  • the overall purpose of VCA;
  • relevant terminology and concepts;
  • means of working more effectively with communities;
  • various information-gathering tools and techniques (i.e. group facilitation, accurate data recording, etc.);
  • different methods for systematizing and analysing data.

The guide begins with a discussion of basic training themes. This is followed by two models of actual training courses: (1) classroom training and, (2) ‘learning-by-doing’. In both cases, explanations for each activity and specific facilitation techniques are presented. Cross-references are made to the other publications in the VCA series, to illustrate how various tools fit into the overall VCA process.

Usage: Guideline for implementation

Audience: National Society staff and volunteers

For the other series of VCA guides:

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Download: http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Publications/disasters/vca/vca-training-guide-en.pdf

Framework on Community Based Disaster Risk Management in Vietnam

framework-on-community-based-disaster-risk-management-in-vietnam

Purpose:

This framework has been developed, through a consultative process, reviewing and consolidating of existing community based disaster risk management (CBDRM) materials and methodologies in Vietnam, as such, it will serve the purpose of a theoretical and practical base reference for CBDRM practitioners at national and provincial level in implementing disaster risk management. The idea behind preparing this documentation is to facilitate CBDRM practitioners, including government and non-government agencies, to effectively implement natural disaster management programs in Vietnam.

The following approaches and steps were adopted while developing the document:

  • Review of existing CBDRM training materials, guidelines, and manuals in Vietnam and other countries.
  • Discussions with CBDRM practitioners (NGOs, bilateral projects, government organization staffs) about the content and level of information required for the framework.
  • Workshops and meetings on CBDRM framework development.
  • Field visit to CBDRM projects.

Overview:

The CBDRM framework is organized as a theoretical and practical reference. The document consists of 2 main parts with the following content and structure:

The first part covers the common understanding of what is CBDRM. It will answer the following questions:

  • What is CBDRM?
  • Why should community members participate in disaster risk management?
  • How has CBDRM been applied in Vietnam?
  • What are CBDRM principles?
  • How is CBDRM process implemented?

The second part is intended as a review of CBDRM practices in Vietnam for readers. Part 2 also provides diverse tools and applications of CBDRM to support the core theory in part 1.

Community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) is a process in which at-risk communities are actively engaged in the identification, analysis, treatment, monitoring and evaluation of disaster risks in order to reduce their vulnerabilities and enhance their capacities.

This means that people are at the heart of decision making and implementation of disaster risk management activities. Capacities of local people are enhanced to help them assess the situation, identify risk reduction measures and implement them. Risk reduction measures include mitigation and preparedness activities before a disaster occurs as well as response and recovery activities during and after the disaster.

Usage: Guideline for implementation

Audience: National Society staff and volunteers

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ref01-2009-Framework-on-CBDRM-in-Vietnam-EN.pdf

Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction for Field Practitioners – Supplement for Facilitator’s Guide

cbdrr-supplement for facilitator's guide

Purpose:

The series provide the DRR practitioners with practical guidance on how to plan and implement community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) programmes with a particular focus on training of CBDRR practitioners. 

The general objective of this training is that field practitioners will be able to apply the theories and practical tools used in Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction to help in building safer and more resilient communities jointly with the population who are at risk to disasters.
The course is designed for a 7-day training, inclusive of 2 days of field visit.
Overview:
The supplement for facilitator’s guide consists of icebreakers and energisers.

Usage: Guidance for project implementation

Audience: Technical staff, Volunteers

The CBDRR guides are available in series of:

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/02_025d-Supplement-CBDRR.pdf

Community-based Disaster Risk Reduction for Field Practitioners – Facilitator’s Guide

cbdrr-field-practitioner

Purpose:

The series provide the DRR practitioners with practical guidance on how to plan and implement community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) programmes with a particular focus on training of CBDRR practitioners. 

The general objective of this training is that field practitioners will be able to apply the theories and practical tools used in Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction to help in building safer and more resilient communities jointly with the population who are at risk to disasters.
The course is designed for a 7-day training, inclusive of 2 days of field visit.

Overview:

  • Module 1: Introduction: Module 1
  • Module 2: CBDRR – A framework for reducing risks: Module 2
  • Module 3: Details of the CBDRR Process: Module 3
  • Module 4: Documenting good practices and lessons learned in CBDRR: Module 4
  • Module 5: Advocacy for sustaining CBDRR programs: Module 5
  • Module 6: Next Step: Module 6

Usage: Guidance for project implementation

Audience: Technical staff, Volunteers

The CBDRR guides are available in series of:

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/02_025b-Facilitators-Guide-CBDRR.pdf

A practical step by step VCA guide for Red Cross and Red Crescent field practitioners and volunteers

A practical step by step VCA guide for Red Cross and Red Crescent field practitioners and volunteers - IFRC References

Purpose:

The document is a guidance material that recommends a common regional approach to VCA. The idea was to adapt global International Federation VCA tools for the South-East Asian context to support National Society assessment processes through the development of regional guidelines, following the experiences of Red Cross Red Crescent and external partners, it aims to guide National Societies in conducting VCA and adapt the VCA process to their own countries.

One of the challenges faced while formulating and implementing the project or program is that VCA results are not well integrated and adopted as a sustainable developmental plan for communities. In addition, a lack of community participation hampers the best use of community knowledge and materials in implementing VCA. Some key lessons learnt from the implementation of VCA in the last several years are defined here for consideration before, during and after rolling out VCA in our region.

Overview:

The lessons learnt from the practices from the National Societies in Southeast Asia:

A. Integration and mainstreaming

  1. National Societies should develop clear objectives at the beginning of the VCA process and ensure they are fully communicated with all levels, especially at the community level with National Society volunteers, villagers and local authorities.
  2. Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) incorporated VCA into its integrated community-based disaster risk reduction programme as an assessment tool or entry point. Risk analysis and hazard mapping, which are component of VCA, can help identify highrisk communities where a disaster risk reduction project could be initiated.
  3. VCA results should be integrated into not only disaster management, but health and care and organizational development (volunteer development).
  4. VCA results have been shared with different stakeholders inside and outside the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, especially local government, which has aided integration. For example the Cambodian, Indonesian and Viet Nam Red Cross Societies included the local authorities in the process.

 

B. Advocacy

  1. VCA should be advocated to National Society leaders to gain their support in terms of policy, and human and financial resources.
  2. More advocacy at different levels can link VCA results with a community’s overall socio-economic development plan.

 

C. Project/programme design

  1. Involve the right people. For example, in the PMI a core team set up VCA including a task force with knowledge and skills in VCA to train SATGANA (disaster preparedness and response teams) at district branch level. Then SATGANA provided training for village-level community-based action teams on how to conduct assessments using VCA as a tool.
  2. Coordination among different National Society departments/divisions such as disaster management, health and organizational development should be taken into consideration to VCA can be better integrated into National Society programmes. Ideally, the VCA should be done jointly with other departments/divisions.
  3. Most VCAs are done on a project basis only. For a longer term effect, National Society strategic plans should include VCAs and longer-term interventions in high risk communities.

 

D. Capacity building

  1. To empower of the community, VCAs should maximize the use of community resources, participation and commitment in whole process. To ensure ownership by the community, there must be genuine community participation from project design through to monitoring, reviewing and evaluating.
  2. It is important to involve members of the community from the start of the process to build their capacity to take further actions to reduce their risks and vulnerabilities, and to build safer and resilient communities. This means “working with them rather than working for them”.

 

Usage: Guidelines for implementation

Audience: National Society staff and volunteers

For the other series of VCA guides:

See also this document in: Burmese version size 4 MB, Lao language size 1 MB, Khmer size 4 MB

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/VCA_Guidelines_in_English.pdf

Gender-Age Marker. Toolkit

Gender-Age Marker

Purpose

This toolkit introduces the European Commission’s new Gender-Age Marker for humanitarian action. It provides an overview of the tool and its application, as well as guidance on how to integrate gender and age concerns in humanitarian action and on how to apply the marker to humanitarian projects.

Overview

The Gender-Age Marker uses four criteria to assess how strongly humanitarian actions integrate gender and age considerations: gender and age analysis / SADD; adapted assistance; negative effects; and adequate participation.

  • Chapter 1 on the operational importance of gender and age presents arguments and examples demonstrating that humanitarian aid is of higher quality and more effective if it integrates issues relating to gender and age.
  • Chapter 2 provides tip sheets on integrating gender and age in humanitarian actions to support humanitarian workers in making their actions more sensitive to gender and age issues.
  • Chapter 3 provides detailed guidance on how to use the Gender-Age Marker in humanitarian actions.
  • Chapter 4 provides guidance on how to deal with difficult cases when using the Gender-Age Marker. For instance what to do if: only one dimension (age or gender) is well reflected; another important diversity dimension is missing; the context makes it difficult to integrate gender and age; the partner has made progress but still does not meet the criteria; the action is heterogeneous; there are no potential negative effects; different age brackets are used to report beneficiary data.

Usage: Guidance for project implementation

Audiences: Technical staff

Reference: Steets, J., Binder, A. & Foran, S. (2013). Gender-Age Marker. Toolkit. European Commission (pp. 1-83). Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/files/policies/sectoral/gender_age_marker_toolkit.pdf [Accessed 8 January 2016].

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Download: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/files/policies/sectoral/gender_age_marker_toolkit.pdf