A global review of disaster reduction initiatives - Welcome to the ...

5Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives248Housing Foundation, CARE, Catholic Relief Services,and other agencies operating in the regionwill concentrate on local levels of involvement,principally in municipalities, to create mechanismsthat can motivate and involve further commitmentfrom national level institutions. Risk reduction isthe primary focus, and while preparedness and disasterresponse problems also are expected to beaddressed, they will be integrated into the overallperspectives of reducing risks.One of the more innovative CAMI projects isconducted by CARE International with partnersin Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras.With an overall budget of more than US$3.5 million and support coming from OFDA, theCanadian International Development Agency(CIDA) and CARE-USA, the project will providetraining and technical support to develop arange of risk reduction activities in core municipalitiesin different high-risk zones of the fourcountries. The project strives to accomplish atrickle down effect among neighbouring communitiesby using people trained in the core municipalities.Benefiting from its association with LARED which provided technical and advisory supportfor the project, CARE expects to fashion itsother development projects in the region withmore attention given to risk reduction.During a recent drought in El Salvador, smallgrants were provided for severely affected populationgroups to develop pilot Integral SustainableProduction Units. These ISP units promote cropdiversification, foster improvements in commercialpractices, and create opportunities for improvedfood storage by utilizing crop techniques that areenvironmentally friendly. Based on the initial experiencewith this project, CARE-France presented aproposal to the EU to finance similar schemes intwo other departments of the country, to improvethe food security of 1,000 extremely poor families.Both projects are based on the participation of thepopulation working through collective schemesusing common lands to minimize their risks. Thisapproach represents an alternative to the relianceon emergency food relief.Networking support for communitypartnershipsIn the beginning of IDNDR a group of socialscientists, NGOs and people interested in thesocial dimensions of risk reduction in LatinAmerica got together in 1992 to constitute LaRed de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastresen América Latina (LA RED – The Latin AmericanNetwork for the Social Study of Disaster Prevention).It was initially conceived as a mechanismto facilitate comparative research of naturaldisasters from a social perspective. It has developedinto the focal point for hundreds of individualsand institutions working in the field ofdisaster and risk management in the differentcountries of Latin America and the Caribbean.Inspired by LA RED, a similar network in SouthAsia has been organized by people committed topromoting alternative perspectives on disaster andvulnerability as a basis for disaster mitigation inthe region. Duryog Nivaran (“disaster mitigation”in Sanskrit) aims to reduce the vulnerability ofcommunities to disasters and conflicts by integratingalternative perspectives in the conceptual, policyand implementation levels of disaster mitigationand development programmes.In 1997, Periperi, a network of “partners enhancingresilience for people exposed to risks”, wasestablished by the Disaster Mitigation for SustainableLivelihoods Programme (DiMP), Universityof Cape Town, with the support ofOFDA/USAID and DFID. Originally composedof 16 different organisations from fiveSouthern African countries, Periperi providesopportunities for a diverse range of organizationsto work together across disciplines and nationalborders, to integrate risk reduction principles andtechnologies into ongoing sustainable developmentpolicy.Case: Guatemala – GermanyThe Peten department of Guatemala contains oneof the largest tropical forest reserves in LatinAmerica. The occurrence of uncontrolled forestfires during the annual dry season endanger thelivelihood of the local population and has lead tolarge-scale impoverishment and destruction offorest ecosystems and biodiversity in northernGuatemala. The government of Guatemala hasembarked on a major programme to promote fireprevention and more effective means to combatthem when they do occur. The programme issupervised by the influential authority of the ExecutiveSecretary of the Presidency and involves theparticipation of several other governmental institutionsusing their own resources.