Event Summary
Session Lead
- Daniel Kull, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Description
Members: 150
Latest Activity: May 03 2010
Introduction to the topic
The primary contribution of community-based risk assessment in developing countries is an in-depth understanding of vulnerability and coping capacities. While hazard assessments are often included in such processes, they tend to be based on past experiences within the community, generally not utilizing scientific information. However as data availability and resolution continuously improves, technical hazard analyses are more and more becoming available at the local level.
Recognising therefore that the primary added value of community-based risk assessment is a better understanding of local vulnerability and resilience, there is a challenge of utilizing this information for upstream decision-making. Vulnerability and capacity assessments (VCA) are constantly undertaken in communities all over the globe by a range of non-state, civil society, community-based and volunteer organisations. This wealth of knowledge needs to inform disaster decision-making not only at the local level, but also sub-nationally, nationally, regionally and globally. Local vulnerability information should be used not only for risk assessment, but also for monitoring and early warning of community-level livelihood trends. Currently, however, no system exists to capture and consolidate this vast data from hundreds of sources.
This session will therefore discuss how to systematically capture, track and consolidate community-level vulnerability information. Discussions should not focus on simply developing a database, but rather on some of the real operational challenges.
Posting guidance
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