Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation - IGNOU

Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy for Administration, Mussorrie. In these
programmes, capsules are being run jointly with these institutions in the basic foundation
courses as well as specially organized workshops for the field level officers at the state
and district levels. A pilot project on capacity building in disaster management for
Government Officials, representatives of the PRIs and ULBs at the district level has
been formulated. NDMA is implementing this programme with the overall objective of
institutional strengthening, awareness generation and capacity building for disaster risk
reduction.
Communication
Communication involves information exchange between
two or more groups/individuals. It could be applied
to both, education as well as emergency communication
management. In terms of disaster education and
preparedness, communication is a process of
knowledge transfer to the community regarding disaster
risks, preparedness and mitigation measures. In the
process, the system is about flow of information from
an individual or group of individuals to a mass group,
i.e., the community. In case of disasters, both horizontal
and lateral communication is needed, before as well
as after disasters.
Source: Communication/adlinktech.com
Community Based Organizations (CBOs)
These are organizations which are formed by people (community), operated by them and monitored
and controlled by them, with least interference of public or private organizations. The CBOs offer:
Immense volunteer capacity
Understanding of community needs and awareness of the most vulnerable populations
Built-in credibility with the community
Access to social and population groups that may avoid interaction with government officials
Power of persuasion and community influence; and
Ability to make decisions outside of government processes
Community Empowerment
Source: Community
Empowerment/changesuk.net
If disasters affect the communities most, they are also the first responders
to disasters and constitute what is referred to as “disaster fronts”. Being at
the forefront, communities need to have necessary capacities to respond to
threats themselves. With respect to communities, we have moved from
‘victim’ or ‘receiver’ oriented approach to active ‘participator’ approach.
Participation in governmental programmes (Formulation, Implementation
andn Monitoring Levels), risk assessment, mitigation planning and capacity
building have ensured their stake.
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