Tools for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction

Description

Project goal

To ensure that risks emanating from natural hazards are considered as a matter of course in the design of all development projects in hazard-prone areas, so that appropriate measures are taken to reduce risk and projects do not create new forms of vulnerability.

Project overview

The project began with a scoping study in September 2003, which was launched at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan, in January 2005. In 2007, ProVention released a set of guidance notes on adapting existing appraisal tools to take risks emanating from natural hazards into account. At the request of a number of stakeholders, this publication was then translated into Spanish, French and Arabic in 2008 and 2009, and ProVention partnered with UN/ISDR offices and other Consortium partners to disseminate hard copies. The Dutch NGO HIVOS, in collaboration with its local Indonesian partners, also translated the publication into Bahasa and Oxfam translated it into Dari and Pashtu for broader dissemination in Afghanistan. The guidance notes also fed into several partner organisations' training modules.

Furthermore, a sourcebook on assessing the impact of risk reduction measures was developed. At the beginning of 2009 ProVention also released a case study that documents experience and challenges in mainstreaming disaster risk into development in the Philippines.

Partners

The project was led by researchers Charlotte Benson and John Twigg. They were supported by an advisory group drawn from donor and operational agencies of different kinds, including ProVention partners, and by a much larger number of expert reviewers.

Outputs & events

Phase 1

Scoping study

Synthesis report

Policy brief

Phase 1 consisted of a scoping study which entailed a review of donor and operational agency documentation and procedures to see how risks emanating from natural hazards are currently handled. It was based on an analysis of published and internal documents, supported by interviews with selected agencies and inputs from a large number of professionals worldwide. The resulting report drew a number of conclusions about current practice and made several policy recommendations for improvements. Among the key findings of the study were that:

  • Many of the standard tools currently used by development agencies in designing projects are capable of being used to assess risks emanating from natural hazards and potential returns to mitigation.
  • There is nothing intrinsically difficult about appraising natural hazard related risks or monitoring and evaluating risk reduction activities if these tasks are approached thoughtfully and resourced adequately.
  • However, natural hazards and related vulnerability are rarely considered in designing and appraising development projects.
  • Monitoring and evaluation of disaster reduction initiatives is also a relatively neglected area, particularly in terms of evaluation of impact.

A scoping study, a synthesis report and a policy brief were launched at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan, in January 2005 and were widely advertised in the development and disaster management communities. Open House International for instance recently published the article 'Tools for Analysing Disaster Risk in Designing and Evaluating Projects' in its edition on Managing Urban Disasters (flyer, pdf - 1BM).

Phase 2

Phase 2 built on the findings of Phase 1, moving from research to the development of practical tools - guidance notes and handbooks - supporting mainstreaming of risk within aid agencies.

The project published a series of 14 guidance notes on adapting existing tools and guidelines used for project appraisal and evaluation, and for developing broader country and sectoral strategies, to take risks emanating from natural hazards into account and analyse related risk reduction opportunities. The series covers the following subjects:

  1. Introduction
  2. Collecting and using information on natural hazards
  3. Poverty reduction strategies
  4. Country programming
  5. Project cycle management
  6. Logical and results based frameworks
  7. Environmental assessment
  8. Economic analysis
  9. Vulnerability and capacity analysis
  10. Sustainable livelihoods approaches
  11. Social impact assessment
  12. Construction design, building standards and site selection
  13. Evaluating disaster risk reduction initiatives
  14. Budget support

ProVention translated this publication into Spanish, French and Arabic. Hivos and Circle Indonesia translated it into Bahasa, and Oxfam translated it into Dari and Pashtu for broader dissemination in Afghanistan.

A Monitoring & Evaluation Sourcebook, and a case study focusing on mainstreaming DRR in the Philippines were also developed.