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Published on 1 November 2009

What is DRR, and how do we reduce risk to disasters in various contexts, in both humanitarian and development scenarios? These questions are frequently asked in the field and were discussed in-depth at the ECB Bellagio conference on DRR. The team of ECB - DRR advisors are now taking forward a concept that will help field workers to answer these critical questions.What is DRR, and how do we reduce risk to disasters in various contexts, in both humanitarian and development scenarios?

The ECB - DRR advisors team plan to develop a set of practical guidelines on how to identify, measure and systematically reduce risk to various types of disasters, while working alongside local communities and institutions. The guide will emphasize simple and practical solutions and present tools that are efficient, quick and easy to use for both risk assessment and DRR mainstreaming.

Phase I of the ECB project developed a successful Good Enough Guide to Accountability and Impact Measurement. This pocket guide will also present some tried and tested concepts and methods for putting DRR and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) into practice in a field context. The guidelines will be aimed primarily at field workers, including humanitarian and development practitioners, project officers and managers with some or little experience in the field, and all those who need to apply DRR principles and practices in “real-life” scenarios. They will draw on the extensive work and learning of field staff, NGOs, and inter-agency initiatives, including the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for DRR, Provention Consortium, and other practitioner-based DRR networks.

The key driver for the project is the lack of a concise guide to DRR that can be utilized across cultures and contexts to build community resilience and reduce risk to disasters of all types. The five country consortia have identified the development of a concise guide as an important contribution to advancing and improving DRR and CCA programs.

Approach and Dissemination

This inter-agency initiative will be conducted utilizing best practice in participatory development: it will be planned, set up, and implemented in close collaboration with field colleagues and partners from the ECB consortia so as to ensure both guide and supporting materials are adapted to the needs expressed from the field.

Furthermore, the guide will be closely linked with the revision of the SPHERE standards, and where possible, will reference other practical resources that are focused on DRR.

The ECB project team is actively seeking funding to support this initiative and harness the potential to develop training materials such as an introductory e-module, a distance training module on the use of the guide, a Training of Trainers module for replication of the training and a participatory video on the use of the guide to ensure that these valuable tools are available, with supporting modules, to practitioners across the humanitarian sector.

For further information, please contact us at info@ecbproject.org

With special thanks to Melisa Bodenhamer (WVI), Erik Rottier (CARE) and Amy Hilleboe (CRS) for their support with this ECB news story.

Photo: Amy Hilleboe, CRS 2009

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