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3Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives144Increasing community capabilitiesInhabitants of local communities are potentialvictims of natural disaster. They also representthe greatest potential source of local knowledgeregarding hazardous conditions, and are therepositories of any traditional coping mechanismssuited to their individual environment.Furthermore it is their personal assets, physicalproperty, and way of life that are likely to bethreatened by hazard.It is little wonder that it is the local populationwhich responds first at times of crisis. They arealso the last remaining participants as strickencommunities strive to rebuild after a disaster.Given these conditions, it is striking that theparticipation of local communities often provesto be problematic in so many disaster risk managementstrategies. There are several constraintsor reasons why this may be so, and eachpoints to a lesson for effective engagement ofcommunity participation.A bottom-up approach is needed to promotechange. Local communities are those mostaware of historical risk scenarios and the onesclosest to their own reality. It is not only aquestion of public awareness, it is a question oflocal community groups having the chance ofinfluencing decisions and managing resourcesto help reduce vulnerability and to cope withrisks.Neither the widespread dissemination of priorexperience nor the abundance of scientific andtechnical knowledge reaches local populationsautomatically. An informed and sustained programmeof public awareness is essential to conveythe benefits of experience to vulnerablecommunities in terms that relate to local perceptionsof need.The effective use of knowledge not onlyrequires wide dissemination, it must also bepresented in a way that relates to local conditionsand customs own conditions and risks.While this has long been accepted as a cardinalprinciple for development accomplishments, ithas remained a difficult principle in many disasterrisk reduction strategies.The realization of virtually all disaster riskreduction is essentially local in nature – andthat requires community action.In every community, knowledge, professionalabilities, and experience fashioned from adversitycan be found, but seldom are theseresources called upon or fully utilised. A specialeffort is required to recall locally valuedtraditional coping mechanisms and strategies.Modern concepts can provide innovativeapproaches. The advantages of modern technology,such as those provided by GIS oraccess to satellite weather forecasts need notdiminish the values of traditional wisdom.Vietnamese villagers maintained irrigationchannels and protective dykes for a reason, justas Pacific islanders were guided in their choiceof materials and construction techniques inbuilding their earlier disaster-resistant houses.NGO and volunteer activitiesExperience demonstrates that NGOs involvedin disaster risk reduction are focussed primarilyon public awareness activities and advocacyprogrammes. They particularly seek to encouragethe desired shift in emphasis from emergencyassistance and disaster response to themore engaged roles of local community participationin planning, vulnerability assessment,and risk management practices.Some Asian countries, such as the Philippines,Bangladesh and India have elaborate policies,strategies, legal and operational mechanisms toaccommodate the participation of NGOs andcommunity based organizations in all aspectsof national development. But the extent towhich they have embraced risk reduction activitiesis still modest. In the Americas, there hasbeen a recent spurt of interest in the subject.The results of that remains to be seen. InAfrica, a handful of small initiatives seem to beas much a consequence of recent or continuingthreats than representing a fundamental shiftin policy awareness or local community commitments.Case: PhilippinesIn the Philippines, the Citizen’s Disaster ResponseNetwork (CDRN) is a national network of 14NGOs that promotes community-based disasterpreparedness work. Since its inception in theearly 1980s, it has conducted campaigns andadvocacy work to mitigate the impacts of disas-