Contribution of volunteerism to disaster risk reduction: practice note
This note provides an overview and understanding of how volunteerism can enhance the capacities of national and local actors in mitigating and coping with natural disasters. It intends to strengthen UNV’s capacity to better support national and local actors in identifying ways that volunteerism can make a difference in the area of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and to more effectively integrate volunteerism into any DRR and/or response plan.
It presents relevant background information and basic concepts related to DRR. It also highlights good practices and lessons learned drawn from analysis of case studies of volunteering contributions of UNV and non-UNV programmes and projects in this field. It intends to contribute to strengthening UNV’s capacity to more effectively engage partners in DRR during its advocacy and programming work.
Case studies include: (i) integrating volunteerism into community disaster risk preparedness in Bangladesh; (ii) developing local capacities for risk reduction through volunteerism following the Indian Ocean tsunami in India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand; (iii) involving an entire population in disaster risk reduction in Cuba; (iv) engaging volunteer-involving organizations for sustainable capacity building in Ecuador; (v) enabling communities to identify and mitigate risks in Nepal; and (vi) promoting the role of children in disaster response in Mozambique.
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