We’re helping people to better anticipate, reduce and manage disaster risks by incorporating risk reduction measures in development.
Reducing disasters is important in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the overriding goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015.
The Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) programme was started in January 2005 after the devastating impact of the largely preventable tsunami killed more than 250,000 people in Asia. This led more than 160 countries to sign on to an action plan, The Hyogo framework for action, to build global resilience to disasters. The framework places primary responsibility on national governments to achieve resilience through DRR.
DRR helps people to better anticipate, reduce and manage disaster risks by incorporating risk reduction measures in development planning and policies. The programme also seeks to reduce exposure to different hazards and help populations that are vulnerable to cope and adapt to disasters. This has been done through the DFID-funded project - Disaster Reduction Through Schools. The programme targets 15,000 children and their communities through 56 at-risk schools in various countries including Malawi, Kenya, Ghana, Haiti, Bangladesh and Nepal. We’re putting communities at the helm of identifying local hazards and reducing risks. In Kenya, DRR is being implemented in Ijara District in North Eastern Province. Ijara district was identified because of its high risk of recurrent natural disasters like drought, flooding and destructive winds.
Particular schools within the district have been identified where intensive work is being done with children, teachers, parents and the wider community using participatory vulnerability analysis (PVA) and other approaches for:
- analysis of trends,
- awareness-raising,
- attitude change and
- tracking in respect to risk reduction and preparedness, climate change and environment focused activities.
PVAs[r1] have already been conducted on Parent-Teacher Associations and School Management Committees, the district steering group and heads of departments. Various approaches have been used to link the school and the wider community, including child-to-child and child-to-parent methods, to communicate on what to do in emergencies and how to reduce risks.
We’ve provided support through schools in Hara, Bodhai, Ruqa and Kotile for community mobilisation and advocacy as needed, to help the community to be safer and better prepared - including addressing safety for children not in school.
To achieve this, capital investments have been supported within the selected schools. These investments are mainly fencing of schools to make them physically safer or able to play a more active normalising function during and after disasters. The programme also supports district-level emergency response and disaster preparedness planning.
