Turning the tide: National conference on good practices in community based disaster risk reduction for adaptation and mitigation

Conference Background:

Disasters being common in Indian, communities have strengthened their resilience through their age old coping methods and also instituted risk reduction mechanisms and models to minimize the vulnerabilities and prevent losses. Some coping mechanisms and good practices across the country which has helped in reducing risk and strengthening reliance of different communities that face cyclones, drought, earthquakes and floods, have been captured and collated under a project conceptualized and supported by EFICOR and implemented as a collaborative effort of Sphere India members, their partners and larger humanitarian community through Sphere India Information and Knowledge Management subcommittee.

- 180 entries on good practices in CBDRR were received from different national as well as grass root agencies working in the field of DRR.
- 33 entries were shortlisted and were validated by a team of Researchers from Sphere India.

The good practices collated includes initiatives preparedness and mitigation measures like rainfall insurance, water harvesting & soil conservation adopting traditional techniques, promotion of disaster resistant housing techniques, capacity and skill building of vulnerable communities and children, Task forces formation and many more, covering the thematic areas – Flood, Drought, Water and Sanitation, Health, Livelihood

About the conference:

The conference is the first of its kind in India, aims to enable Key Opinion Leaders involved in community based disaster risk deduction initiatives in India to come together at a National level Forum, to gather knowledge on the CBDRR practices. Organizations which facilitated and implemented these practices, will present their work, strategies, experiences and challenges during the workshop and a panel of experts will judge their work and three best practices will be awarded.

A compendium of good practices on community based disaster risk reduction that aims to provide lead to practitioners working in areas of disaster risk reduction, will be also be released. A display of various publications carried out by member organisations of Sphere India will also be a part of the workshop pedagogy.

Objectives of the two day conference:

The conference will thus aim to achieve the following objectives:

- To disseminate, aware and enhance the understanding on ‘community based disaster risk reduction’ models and mechanism among the DRR practitioners.
- To provide/make available CBDRR models to the government and non-government agencies for incorporation of the risk reduction practices in their programmes.
- To felicitate the three organizations/ promoters adjudged as ‘best practice’.