www.cordaid.org

COMMUNITY MANAGED DISASTER RISK REDUCTION (CMDRR) AND STRATEGIES FOR DROUGHT

why invest in drought prone communities?

Climate change and natural resource degradation have resulted in increasingly severe and frequent natural hazards. One of the most frequent hazards is drought. Drought can cause slow-onset crisis that disrupts the community’s livelihoods in for instance Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Malawi.

Rural households are extremely vulnerable to drought as it undermines their food security and often causes a breakdown in basic social services and production processes. Malnutrition and famine result in illnesses and deaths. Extensive damage to vegetation and lack of sufficient (drinking) water further cause the loss of economic growth and endangers people livelihoods. People are caught in a downward spiral of natural resource degradation, loss of assets, food insecurity and poverty. This again increases their vulnerability to drought. Yet this cycle can be stopped with community managed disaster risk reduction (CMDRR) as it enables people to save their lives now and increases resilience in the future.

cordaid’s community managed disaster risk reduction

With Community Managed DRR (CMDRR) the capacities and needs of local communities are fully explored, so risks for disasters can be mitigated. CMDRR enables Cordaid to achieve safe and resilient communties that are able to address and eventually bounce back from hazards. This approach – aimed at disaster risk reduction - has resulted in new initiatives that are safe, secure and sustainable through time. In 2011 – 2012, Cordaid and its local partners developed 7500 community-managed prevention and mitigation plans in fourteen hazard-prone countries. Experiences from the different communities and partner organisations are documented and shared with other organisations including governments. This exchange of information enable communities to find new

solutions for emerging hazards. Examples are the introduction of more drought-resistant live stock and innovative ways of water management. The European commission states that for every euro spent on risk reduction activities before a disaster strikes, we can save up to seven euro after a disaster has occurred.1 It is much cheaper to increase or adapt to drought resistant agricultural productivity or help people prepare for a disaster than it is to run relief operations. Communities have coping mechanisms, but their world is changing fast and they lack acces to innovative knowledge and resources. Cordaid aims to connect different involved stakeholders with communities to increase access to new knowledge and resources. 1 http://ec.europa.eu/echo/files/aid/countries/factsheets/thematic/disaster_risk_reduction.pdf

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opportunities to invest in drought-prone areas

Cordaid is in the process of becoming a social enterprise, as it aims to maximise the social outcomes as well as the financial benefits of its work. In this line, with its CMDRR approach Cordaid looks into innovative possibilities and partners to further expand their CMDRR approach. The organisation aims to partner with companies or other organisations with technical expertise to find localized and specific products. Vice versa these companies can benefit from Cordaid’s network and social expertise as they develop new products for drought risk reduction. Collaboration results in access to new, emerging markets and customers.

Previous experience of Cordaid and local partners has shown that within drought-prone areas there is much room for new technical innovations. This includes improved water catchment and smallholder farming techniques for higher yields. Affordable faster-maturing and drought-tolerant crops can increase revenue, even in absence of irrigation schemes and limited weather-forecasting techniques. Another technique worthy to further explore are solar powered surface and borehole water pumps, an interesting technique that can be used in drought-prone areas to pump water for the irrigation of crops and for human and livestock use.

Thus, Cordaid seeks for companies with technological expertise to collaborate and to further explore these and other opportunities with them.

Previous experience of Cordaid and local partners has shown that within drought-prone areas there is much room for technical innovations. This includes improved water catchment and smallholder farming techniques for higher yields.

contact

Monique LagroDirector Disaster Responsemonique.lagro@cordaid.nl

Postal address P.O. Box 164402500 BK The HagueThe Netherlands

AddressLutherse Burgwal 102512 CB The HagueThe Netherlands

+31(0)70-31 36 300info@cordaid.nlwww.cordaid.org