Community Disaster Resilience Fund (CDRF): Insights from India
Implementation: states | villages | districts
Outreach: villages | districts
INTRODUCTION
The idea of creating a mechanism to channel funds directly to at risk communities
for innovative solutions on DRR was crafted at the First Global Platform on Disaster
Risk Reduction held in 2007 at a workshop on implementing the HFA. The promoters
-GROOTS International, Huairou Commission and ProVention Consortium decided to
pilot the idea of a Community Resilience Fund. In India, the Community Disaster
Resilience Fund (CDRF) initiative was formally endorsed by National Disaster
Management Authority (NDMA) at the Second Asian Ministerial Conference on DRR
at New Delhi in November 2007. The recently held Global Platform 2009, noted
the increasing gap between local and national/global initiatives. Policies and
programs seem to fade out at the community/local level. Among the recommendations
were that mechanisms /processes need to be established so that policy mainstream
is informed by insights and initiatives at the grassroots, where communities at-risk
are located and live on a day-to-day basis. The aim of the CDRF pilot is to demonstrate
that vulnerable communities can self identify risks, plan and manage earmarked funds
to enhance community resilience by forging effective community and local government
partnerships. The CDRF is currently being coordinated by National Alliance for Adaptation
and Disaster Risk Reduction (NAADRR), a network of over 170 NGOs.
The NAADRR has set up a Project Advisory Committee that is chaired by the NDMA
of India and includes other institutional partners. The Committee is viewed as a
mechanism for feeding lessons and recommendations emerging from local CDRF
experiences into state and national level programs with support of the NDMA. The
fund is managed by the local CDRF committees, which transfer funds, plan and
oversee DRR initiation across 10 -15 communities. Facilitating organizations provide
training and advocate for resources with district level administration and PRI.
CDRF supports communities to:
> Experiment with solutions to address locally identified risks and vulnerabilities.
> Create local stakeholder platforms that bring grassroots women's priorities and
practices to the national disaster reduction agenda, as well as development
programs.
> Leverage resources for community based organizations from development, DRR
and poverty reduction programs.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Recognize community and women's groups as key actors in DRR, rather than as beneficiaries, by investing in and leveraging their experience in disaster preparedness and resilience building.
2. Align DRR programs with poverty reduction and development. Addressing access to basic services (drinking water, health, sanitation) and sustainable livelihoods is critical to vulnerability reduction in poor communities.
3. Provide resources in the hands of community and women's groups for disaster preparedness and resilience strategies. Community funds, micro credit and social insurance are strategies that create safety net leading to reduction of
vulnerability.
4. Recognize and support community and women's groups as stakeholders and support local partnership and platform for engagement for DRR and development. These platforms and learning network allow community experience and lessons to inform development plans in a way that addresses local risks and vulnerabilities.
INSIGHTS
An area-based disaster resilience fund is a powerful catalyst that can fast track disaster resilient development. Govardanpur villagers of Orissa, proposed to construct a check dam to address issues of water scarcity. The formation of the Community Disaster Resilience Fund committee as well as the hazard mapping and survey acted as a trigger; they brought men and women
for the first time, to work together. Women's voices were heard by the village development
committee, thereby ensuring that their priorities (i.e. building steps to ease the drudgery of fetching water from the dam) informed the design of the initiative. The CDRF acted as a stepping stone; while the fund itself doesn't cover all the costs of this proposed initiative, it will be used to leverage other resources from the government and private sector.
There is a need for a shift in the Government's view that is important; the government needs to
understand that, once given the reigns, women's groups are willing to think big and take this
initiative forward and ensure its sustainability.
Local platforms around resilience are key to establishing local partnerships by leveraging
resources and knowledge networks at the community / women's groups.
The CDRF has spawned local platforms/ networks that offer an ongoing space for learning to upstream resilience lessons into policy and programming at district / national levels by linking DRR priorities with goals of poverty reduction and development. Armed with evidence on how disasters affect livelihoods, health and everyday survival, community women's groups are showing that they are key allies in bringing
DRR issues to the forefront. Community women know their risk, and have developed solutions to cope with disasters. Social barriers prevent women from voicing these solutions and bringing them in community decision making on water, health and sanitation priorities. By insisting that local DRR platforms include and strengthen women's voices, the CDRF presents yet another entry point for women in poor communities and local govts to work together.
Knowledge transfer through learning networks is at the heart of scaling up CDRF initiatives.
In coastal districts, Sangamam CBO, has developed skilled community trainers who can transfer know-how to new communities required to establish disaster task forces, shelter belts and mangrove forests. In drought prone Rajasthan, women's groups will share their experience of planting of Sevan grass, a fodder species which withstands drought conditions with similar groups in 25 other villages Future plans include handholding to scale community resilience funds to combat drought and other hazards.
- Swayam Shikshan Prayog, November 2009
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
REFILE - CORRECTING DATE People look at a stranded car after storms in Puerto de la Cruz, Spain's Canary island of Tenerife, November 17, 2009. Torrential rainfalls hit several villages on ...
