Facilitating Community-Managed Disaster Risk Reduction

After successfully conducting the Facilitating Community-Managed Disaster Risk Reduction Courses in Ecuador in October 2005 and in Kenya in March 2006, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction is now bringing the course to Kampala, Uganda.
 
Today's world population is experiencing frequent disaster caused by natural hazards. Such condition has resulted to widespread human, material and environmental losses causing the destabilization and disruption of society. These situations show us the need to recognize the link between disaster and development. “Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR)' is out forward as an approach to bridge disaster and development. CMDRR refers to a process of disaster risks reduction in which communities are actively engaged in the identification, analysis, treatment, monitoring and evaluation of disaster risks in order to reduce peoples' vulnerabilities and enhance their capacities to overcome/reduce the impact of disasters in their community life.
 
While the ‘Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction' paradigm warrants a process facilitation role from development practitioners, the current lack of capacity to do so constrains the application of CMDRR. Responding to the growing needs of learning and capacity building opportunities on the CMDRR approach to disaster management, IIRR designed this course to enable participants to adapt this approach in their programs.
 
This two-week course is designed to increase the learners' ability to facilitate Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction process. At the end of this course, participants will have:
 
- Explained concepts of community managed risk reduction and facilitation;
- Demonstrated facilitation skills to conduct participatory vulnerabilities, capacities and needs assessment based on the identified priority hazards pattern within the community;
- Examined the use of selected tools for CMDRR-centered participatory planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning;
- Considered approaches to sustainability of the CMDRR process;
- Prepared an action plan to initiate or promote CMDRR in his her own work settings.
 
The course will be facilitated by a team of IIRR facilitators. The team ensures effective balance between concepts and practice based experiences among the multicultural group of participants. The course methodology centers on the concept of ‘experiential learning”. Participants are encouraged to reflect upon their own experiences with the inputs provided during the course using a framework for critical analysis and learning.
 
Leaders, managers, trainers as well as development practitioners from government agencies, NGOs, donors and consultants will find this course valuable.