Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Programme

 BACKGROUND
Bangladesh has more than 700 rivers and tributaries that define the geography of the country and the way of life of its people. The rivers are the main sources of irrigation, the principal arteries for commercial transportation and homes for fisheries and aquatic resources. This make the communities living along the river banks predominantly dependent on the flood plains for their livelihoods and forces them to be more exposed to natural hazards like floods, cyclones and droughts. The vulnerability is worsened by problems like up streams rivers erosion and climate change effect.
The government of Bangladesh (GoB) has been very proactive in addressing issues related to disaster management. The draft National Policy on Disaster Management (DM) of Bangladesh is recognized by the Government of the need to shift the approach from disaster response to disaster risk reduction. It also gives much emphasis on involvement of community and local governments in implementing DM programmes.
As an auxiliary to the GoB, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) has been working with vulnerable communities since the early 1970s through its Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP). In 1997, the BDRCS launched a comprehensive Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) Programme designed to reduce the vulnerabilities of communities living in high risk areas of disaster prone districts. Since its inception, the programme has been implemented in 34 disaster prone districts and 142 cyclone shelters, benefiting about 450,000 vulnerable people directly.
Building on the success of the CBDP Programme and revised BDRCS Disaster management Strategy (2005-2008), the Community Based Disaster Management (CBDM) programme was launched in 2005 with support from Hong Kong Red Cross and Department for International Development (DFID) through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS). The programme aims to adopt a more holistic approach towards disaster risk management and is being implemented in 80 flood prone communities under 10 districts of Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Sirajgong, Chandpur, Munshigong, Madaripur, Foridpur, Tangail, Jamalpur and Sariatpur.
Focusing particularly on women, it continues to increase community consciousness about risk and how they collectively act toreduce their exposure to hazards. It fosters community participation ad unity to coordinate with the local government in fulfilling their responsibilities to save lives and property in the event of disasters.

CBDM Programme
To guarantee a community-led approach and to reach the most vulnerable, the CBDM programme is implemented by the communities with support from the BDRCS. The programme assisted the communities to organize themselves in Micro Groups with 30 to 40 members in each. These Micro Groups (MG) act as the target group for household-level disaster risk reduction interventions.
Each MG selects two representatives who become members of the Community Disaster Management Committee (CDMC). The CDMC is a community level body/ organization responsible for leading programme activities to reduce long-term community risks from floods and for facilitating the contingency planning process. It consists of 16 members, 50 per cent of whom are women.
The composition incorporates a well-balanced mix of age and gender from and chosen by the community that helps the programme to recognize different perspective and how existing local strengths and weakness could address household issues and challenges faced by community members to reduce their risks.
The third community structure under the programme is a team of physically and mentally fit community volunteers; Community Disaster Response Teams (CDRTs), trained to assist vulnerable community members during severe floods. The CDTRs are assisted by the respective Unit Office of the BDRCS and the Unit Disaster Response Teams (UDRTs).
The CBDM Programme has a long-term development approach and is focused on capacity building and strengthening of community structures. This will ultimately lead to sustain the initiatives even when programme activities have ended and would result to the community empowerment.
It has been recognized that to reduce risks of natural hazards, community awareness must be raised and capacities built through integrating disaster preparedness into development. The programme conducted in depth vulnerability and capacity assessments (VCA), a learning by doing methodology, with communities to understand and establish the linkages between disasters and social, physical and economic vulnerabilities.
Based on the findings of the VCA, the communities prioritized varies livelihood interventions to be undertaken by the programme to reduce floods risks leading to poverty alleviation of the most vulnerable households.
Training on first aid, maternal health and safe delivery, primary health care, and reproductive health DM leadership were also provided to members of CDMC, CDRT, Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and disaster health volunteers (DHVs), improving local capacities and equipping communities with the necessary skills that helped save lives during the recent floods in 2007.

OUTCOMES
Disaster risk reduction being a long-term process, the most significant outcomes of the CBDM programme is the empowerment of the communities, particularly women in understanding their own risks and acting collectively to reduce the impacts of floods.

• Through the involvement of CDMCs in facilitating Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments (VCAs), the communities recognized their own risk and took decisions to act collectively and has more importantly led to the development of a sense of unity within the communities.
• The desire for continued unity has helped the communities for  prioritization  the needs to have a community space  for the CDMCs. With assistants from BDRCS, the CDMC leaders have volunteered to provide the common space, where the communities have built an office for community meetings and training activities.

This office space is also planned to served as a shelter for the most vulnerable families during the flood season and would continue to stand as a symbol of their strength and solidarity.

• The established CDMCs brought a sense of strength and ownership that has empowered the communities to plan for contingency funds to sustain their current livelihoods provided by the programme.
• The process of formation of CDMC ensuring not less than 50 per cent membership of women has helped the community to view its vulnerabilities and challenges from different perspectives and plan actions accordingly.
• The series of training activities for community volunteers conducted by CDMCs and UDRTs have resulted in better understanding of local capacities and increased knowledge and skills necessary to mobilize community resources and to reduce long-term flood risks in a more systematic manner.
• The effective functioning of the CDMCs and CDRTs particularly in the post 2007 flood situation has helped to gain confidence within the community and increased their commitment.

LESSONS LEARNED
Regular awareness building meetings in MGs, CDMCs and CDRTs have made the communities realize that the floods risks could be reduced by acting collectively as a community along with partnership of various stakeholders like the local government authorities, local NGOs and the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society.
The CDMCs can play a vital role in the future in initiating dialogue with various stakeholders and be the focal point ensuring disaster-resilient to development.
Participation in the VCA process has made communities realize that in order to reduce flood risks, it is necessary to address the root causes of development and not only focus on preparedness and response.   

THE WAY FORWARD
The programme has taken the first step towards embracing a collective vision of the communities to reduce flood risks. A similar mindset needs to be created for other local relevant hazards like drought and tornado. An integrated approach towards risk reduction needs to be adopted. This would require time, continued engagement of the BDRCS and strengthening linkages between the local government and other stakeholders.

Currently, there are three communities that coordinate and review disaster management activities at a sub-national level. These are the districts, Upazillas and Union Disaster Management Committees. Since under the CBDM programme, the UDRT and CDMC are formed at levels below the Union. They could be further strengthened and expanded in the future to complete the linkages from the national to the village level.
It is important to continue  the current community based approach to ensure participation of the most vulnerable within the communities towards programme sustainability. The BDRCS would continue to facilitate he communities in developing the flood preparedness and response plans.
The VCAs conducted in the communities under the programme would be revisited to understand the change in priorities and to continue advocacy on disaster-resilient development with the local government and other stakeholders.