Information flows faster than water: lessons from a mixed methods evaluation of Oxfam's Community-based Disaster Risk Management and Livelihoods Programme in Pakistan

This report presents the review of the Community-based Disaster Risk Management and Livelihoods (CBDRML) Programme in Pakistan, and its outcomes. The report on the programme concludes that participating households were better prepared to manage flood-related risk than those outside the programme, and so lost fewer assets during the 2010 floods in Pakistan. It also includes results of a qualitative follow-up study commissioned in 2013 in order to evaluate the programme's success. It shows that by empowering people to access information and act quickly in response to the floods, the two partner organizations were able to deliver quick wins to the communities they were working with, reducing their vulnerability. This study supports the conclusion that resilience and empowerment are inextricably intertwined, and that achieving both requires concerted effort at different levels.