Inception Report - CDEMA

particularly the community disaster preparedness training to conduct vulnerability and capacity
assessments, involves community members in the development of the tools which they will
subsequently use to reduce the community’s vulnerability to disasters. The approach includes
community identification of the perceived risks and capacities to generate a vulnerability maps
and early warning systems.
The Building Disaster Resilient Communities (BDRC) Project being implemented in Jamaica
has engaged, and continues to engage, stakeholders in defining their own problems and
solutions to inform project design and implementation. For example, community training
programmes are developed based on capacity needs that community members have identified.
e) Establishing or working with existing local governance mechanisms in communities
The success of community-based programmes depends, in part, on good governance systems.
The BDRC project in Jamaica is working with and through local government and parish
structures. Jamaica’s 14 local authorities and their Parish Disaster Coordinators are an
important element of the project’s implementation arrangements, with key activities and some
local level decision-making being done in association with and through them. Indeed, working
with the guidance, buy-in and at the pace of personnel at this level has proven to be a critical
factor in the smooth and uninterrupted roll-out in communities.
The Red Cross National Societies are another important institutional mechanism for the roll out
of DRR and CC programmes at community level. They have recently been placing greater
emphasis on community level disaster preparedness, testing and applying different methods to
support and implement local level interventions. As a consequence they add to the
effectiveness of regional and national disaster management systems, whilst ensuring they are
informed by, and are more responsive to, community needs and situations of vulnerability.
The governance mechanism at the level of the community itself is also critical. In CANARI’s
experience, it is almost always preferable to work with an existing community-based
organisation than to try and establish a new one as the results tend to be evident earlier and
prove more sustainable. However, whether the organisation is an established or a new one,
there is likely to be a need for initial and ongoing identification and management of internal
community conflicts (generally requiring an external, independent facilitator) and capacity
building in aspects of organisational and project management. This has implications for the
timeframe of any successful initiative and, in practice, there is often a mis-match between short
donor project funding cycles and the desired long-term outcomes, resulting in disappointment
for all.
CANARI has found the use of mentors to be a particularly successful strategy in supporting the
development of community-based organisations, particularly in the early stages when they may
be developing proposals and implementing projects for the first time. It is also important to
consider all the options available for structuring the organisation, rather than relying on the type
of traditional, hierarchical structures with highly formal meetings that have been prevalent in the
region and that tend to deter the participation of key stakeholders such as young people (and
particularly young men) and those with low literacy levels or low self-esteem or confidence. If
the initiative intends to have an entrepreneurial component, a for-profit or cooperative
organisation should be considered as an alternative or adjunct to a non-profit structure.
f) Participatory monitoring and evaluation of community vulnerability and capacity
Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PME) involves the local community, development
agencies, local authorities and other stakeholders in measuring the progress made, and
identifying necessary follow-up actions to ensure that community vulnerability is consistently
reduced. No programmes in the region fully include this component. The Asian Disaster
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