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

Selected application of disaster reduction measuresThe following boxes provide a summary of the benefits of public participation and indicate factorsthat facilitate this process.5Benefits of public participation include:• Improved understanding of warnings as a complexsocial process;• Identification of warning recipients;• Identification of resources available at the locallevel to tailor message contents, disseminationchannels and response options (including empiricalknowledge of hazards and local copingstrategies);• Access to most vulnerable community groups(an effective early warning system is one thatcaters adequately and equally to remote andother vulnerable social groups with special needsor limited access to resources, including remoteisland communities, squatter settlements, disabledand elderly people, tourists and fishermen);• Better understanding of user needs and preferencesin terms of product-type and application,as well as display of information;• Social support for public policies and decisions,mass evacuations, for example;• Enhanced credibility of warning messages;• Easier improvement of early warning systemsbased on feedback analysis from warning recipients.How can public participation befacilitated?1. Political commitment to create theconditions for allowing publicinvolvement.2. Early start in the warning designprocess in order to allow time fortrust-building.3. Definition of how participationwill be organized.4. Provision of all necessary informationto community leaders andcivil society representatives.5. Advertisement and wide sharingof the process through the massmedia, for example.6. Testing of warning options; monitoringof implementation.7. Maintenance of communicationand iteration (feedback with users)during the process.8. Institutionalisation of feedbackprocedures and assurance of sustainability/maintenanceof the system.Adapted from B. Affeltranger, 2002The following examples show several facets ofpublic involvement, participation and knowledge.They display useful practices such aspublic involvement in warning dissemination,strengthening of local capacities, the applicationof local experiences and public participationin the design of early warning systems.For the past thirty years, the Bangladesh RedCrescent Society’s Cyclone Preparedness Programme(CPP) has disseminated warnings andassisted cyclone-affected communities along710 kilometres of the Bangladesh coastline inthe Bay of Bengal. Equipped with hand sirens,megaphones, transistor radios, signal lightsand flags, first-aid and rescue kits, more than30,000 volunteers act as the communicationschannel through which the CPP head office inDhaka relays weather bulletins from theBangladesh Meteorological Department tomore than ten million people living in areas ofhigh cyclone risk. CPP has demonstrated thatdisaster preparedness programmes can be successfulthrough the use of community-basedmanagement methods and basic forms of technologythat can link appropriate and effectivewarning systems to distant providers of life-savinginformation. Selected volunteers serve as“information lifelines” for people at times ofthreatening cyclones.Through the CPP communications network,high-frequency radio broadcasts are transmittedfrom the capital city of Dhaka to field stationsequipped with additional very high frequency(VHF) radio receivers, where information is thenpassed on to the volunteer unit teams by way oftransistor radios. Local information on theprogress of an approaching cyclone or the resultingeffects after it has passed through an area islikewise transmitted back to the central office.The network has also proved to be an importantasset for relief operations after a cyclone.267