Community-Based Risk Assessment
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Information
Session Lead: Daniel Kull, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Members: 141
Latest Activity: May 03 2010
See presentations from the Community-Based Risk Assessment Session at the Understanding Risk conference HERE.
Introduction to the topic
The primary contribution of community-based risk assessment in developing countries is an in-depth understanding of vulnerability and coping capacities. While hazard assessments are often included in such processes, they tend to be based on past experiences within the community, generally not utilizing scientific information. However as data availability and resolution continuously improves, technical hazard analyses are more and more becoming available at the local level.
Recognising therefore that the primary added value of community-based risk assessment is a better understanding of local vulnerability and resilience, there is a challenge of utilizing this information for upstream decision-making. Vulnerability and capacity assessments (VCA) are constantly undertaken in communities all over the globe by a range of non-state, civil society, community-based and volunteer organisations. This wealth of knowledge needs to inform disaster decision-making not only at the local level, but also sub-nationally, nationally, regionally and globally. Local vulnerability information should be used not only for risk assessment, but also for monitoring and early warning of community-level livelihood trends. Currently, however, no system exists to capture and consolidate this vast data from hundreds of sources.
This session will therefore discuss how to systematically capture, track and consolidate community-level vulnerability information. Discussions should not focus on simply developing a database, but rather on some of the real operational challenges.
Posting guidance
For comments specific to the 4 discussion topics below, please click on the appropriate "Discussion Forum" and enter your comments there. For general discussion about the overall topic, please use the Comment Wall at the bottom of this page.
Introduction to the topic
The primary contribution of community-based risk assessment in developing countries is an in-depth understanding of vulnerability and coping capacities. While hazard assessments are often included in such processes, they tend to be based on past experiences within the community, generally not utilizing scientific information. However as data availability and resolution continuously improves, technical hazard analyses are more and more becoming available at the local level.
Recognising therefore that the primary added value of community-based risk assessment is a better understanding of local vulnerability and resilience, there is a challenge of utilizing this information for upstream decision-making. Vulnerability and capacity assessments (VCA) are constantly undertaken in communities all over the globe by a range of non-state, civil society, community-based and volunteer organisations. This wealth of knowledge needs to inform disaster decision-making not only at the local level, but also sub-nationally, nationally, regionally and globally. Local vulnerability information should be used not only for risk assessment, but also for monitoring and early warning of community-level livelihood trends. Currently, however, no system exists to capture and consolidate this vast data from hundreds of sources.
This session will therefore discuss how to systematically capture, track and consolidate community-level vulnerability information. Discussions should not focus on simply developing a database, but rather on some of the real operational challenges.
Posting guidance
For comments specific to the 4 discussion topics below, please click on the appropriate "Discussion Forum" and enter your comments there. For general discussion about the overall topic, please use the Comment Wall at the bottom of this page.
Discussion Forum
Members (141)
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Comment wall (23 comments)
No problems, thanks very much for this. Will provide inputs to the discussion shortly. Take care, Steeve
Have just reactivated - it could be that I at some point accidentally clicked on "Close discussion" - sorry about this!
Hi Daniel, Thanks for your answer. I don't know what happened but the following message is appearing: "Replies are closed for this discussion" is appearing from my side and the comment box has disappeared...anything which could be done in order to "reactivate" the discussion?
Hi Steeve, as far as I am concerned it is still open! Unless the organisers have decided to end all on-line sessions(?). In any case I am happy to continue...
Hi Daniel, too bad that the discussion on combining community and scientific data is now closed. I personally think that this was one of the most interesting and structured discussion posted on this platform. Any specific reason for this closure? can't we continue it for a while as the conference is still one month from now? Best regards, Steeve
Yippee/ I'm getting closer. The first few lines of my discussion are up now. CAnnot figure out how to read the entire thing? lois Secretariat, The Walking Drum
Avantika, you raise a number of important issues, for example how to identify and support indigenous knowledge for early warning and disaster risk reduction, as well as how to support and reach remote and/or marginalized communities. These are issues that my organisation (IFRC) and many others (including I am sure many of those of people on this discussion) face on a daily basis. However I would like to stay within the focus of this current Understanding Risk discussion. As such I will use some of what you wrote as a "kick off" to the stream (above) on enabling community contributions.
Hi I am Avantika, a law student from India. Indigenous Community Development is an area that has always interested me. Through internships and research projects I have been able to gather some experience about such communities. I would like to draw your attention to the primitive Indian tribes living in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located in the Indian Ocean. These tribes not only survived the tsunami but in fact were able to avert danger well in time. They live close to nature and are known to pay heed to biological warnings like bird cries and behavior patterns of other animals. However, there are certain issues that require a considerable amount of planning and prioritization. Some of these tribes live in extremely remote and inaccessible areas. How do we plan to reach out to them? There are innumerable tribes like these spread across continents, how and who do we aim at reaching out first? Some of them are even considered to be hostile. If a collaboration or co-operation with the government is an option, then how viable is it? It is one thing to recommend that governments should reach out to these communities and another to actually see them reaching out and trying to establish link with them. Any suggestions on this issue? In crux, I am more interested in how do we plan to execute a system or mechanism. Is it even executable? I hope I am raising a pertinent issue, do correct me if I am deviating from the discussion :)
Mitulo - this is exactly one of the issues I would like to address. Particularly in discussion forums 1 and 2 above, if one of the challenges we face is getting technocrats to recognise the utility of community-based vulnerability information, is there a way to capture, track and consolidate the information that will make it more useful at higher resolutions (national, etc.)? Would this not add value to community-based vulnerability information at all levels (discussion forum 4 above)? I would appreciate very much your thoughts on this - but please try to do it within the forums above to kick start discussions!
Yes. This is about knowledge that communities over a period of time have acquired through experiences, oral tradition or folklore. This is many cases is not documented. There is a lot that can be found on the subject matter.
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