iscram asia 2014 marc van den homberg20062014

STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF COMMUNITY-BASED EARLY WARNING SYSTEM

Marc van den Homberg 22 APRIL 2014

CARE ACT SHARE, LIKE CORDAIDISCRAM Asia, Marc van den Homberg, Bineke Posthumus, 20th of June 2014

COMMUNITY MANAGED DISASTER

RISK REDUCTION (CMDRR)

ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG

PREPAREDNESS AND COMMUNITY-BASED EARLY WARNING SYSTEM

Cordaid works on CMDRR since 2002 in 14 hazard-prone regionsAs part of preparedness phase: implementation of Community-based early warning system (CBEWS) or people-centered early warning system:

Risk knowledge

Monitoring and warning

Dissemination and communication

Response capability

TOWARDS SOCIO-ECONOMIC VIABILITY

OF CBEWS


DRIVERS, BARRIERS AND OBJECTIVE

Drivers• reduction of the possibility of personal injury, loss of life, damage to

property, environment and loss of livelihood • positive cost-benefits for high-frequency, low impact disasters (Joint World

Bank/UN report on economics of EWS)

Barriers to implementation and adoption:• political challenges• insufficient aggregation of the needs of vulnerable communities• difficulty in forging multi-stakeholder partnerships• …

Objective Develop a strategic framework to tackle these barriers and reach socio-economic viability of a CBEWS in vulnerable geographic areas

CROSS-BORDER COMMUNITY-BASED

EARLY WARNING SYSTEM

BACKGROUND PROJECT REGION AND PARTNERS

The Terai is a vulnerable region between India and Nepal with a Karnali (Nepal) and Ghaghra (India) river basin, originating in the Nepal Himalayas and flowing southwards causing severe floods in the monsoon period affecting between 100 and 150 thousand people each year


INDIAN SIDE OF THE CROSS-BORDER PROJECT

Phase I: 15 villages 2012-2013Phase II: 45 villages 2013Phase III: 95 villages 2014-201647,012 beneficiaries reached

Bahraich

Gonda

Gorakhpur

PROJECT AREAS


CBEWS: MONITORING AND WARNING


RIVER MONITORING AND WARNING MODEL

Upstream river monitoring (telemetry in Nepal)

Downstream river monitoring (manual reading)

Lead time calculated by:• comparison of highest water levels in

upstream Nepal with downstream India Historical data

Determination of warning level and trend

INDIAN RIVER MONITORING 4 X A DAY (6 AM, 10 AM, 2 PM AND 6 PM) BY

GRAM TASK FORCE

Community creates a Gram Task Force per village with four subgroups: :• Dissemination and coordination• Search and Rescue and First Aid• Security• Shelter and LivelihoodUsually about 16 to 20 members




NEPAL: DEPARTMENT OF HYDROLOGY AND METEOROLOGY RIVER WATCH


CBEWS: DISSEMINATION AND

COMMUNICATION


DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

Increased risk: then warning decided by president of Gram Task Force

Siren, local resources

Flag, Loud speaker

Individual warning by Gram Task Force member

The Ghaghara River flowingon 10.8 Meter across thedanger level in Chisapani,Nepal today at 6:00 AM andthe flood water has come toWarning level 02 in Tikhariavillage and also come to onWarning level 03 in villageKhairigauri. You are allrequested to arrange for 5days ration, for 2 days dryfood, and essential clothsand utensils and deployedyour live stock on safeplaces.

CBEWS: DISSEMINATION AND

COMMUNICATION

WARNING INFORMATION VIA VOICE SMS


IMPACT OF CBEWS

CASE OF WEST RAPTI IN BANKE, NEPAL

1

2

4

7

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1998 2004 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

# of Deaths

Community Based Early Warning System

established in 2008

Highest flood in 2012

Seven times flood in 2013 monsoon


STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK


THREE INNOVATION PHASES AND SIX METHODOLOGICAL GUIDELINES

DEVELOPED FOR BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID INNOVATIONS

COLLABORATION BUILDING AND

COOPERATION


DESIGN PHASE

• Started with three NGOs bringing together funding, local network and expertise• then government/district entities joined (Regional Remote Sensing Centre-Uttar Pradesh, Central

Water Commission)• IT solution provider (Voicetree Technologies)• Volunteer groups that were formed for CMDRR were

empowered for CBEWS activities

In phase III:• Engage with media• Mobilize other existing volunteer group • (boy scout’s e.g.)

CO-CREATION, ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

AND SOCIAL EMBEDDEDNESS


DESIGN PHASE

Social embeddedness and active participation• One Gram Task Force (GTF) per village • Several GTFs facilitated by one Village Disaster Management

Committee (VDMC) with junior engineer of the Irrigation department (chair), Gram Pradhan vice president, village development officer, NGO member and village secretary.

Co-creation• Participatory Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis per village:

social, resource, wards vulnerability, seasonal, service and hazards vulnerability maps

• VDMC facilitates establishment of CBEWS in his Panchayat, conducts trainings and mock drills before flood and adapts the village Emergency Preparedness Plan (EPP) and DRR Plan.

INSTITUTES, POLICIES AND

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT


PILOT PHASE: LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR DISASTER

MANAGEMENT AT NATIONAL, STATE AND DISTRICT LEVELS

Ensure compliance with National Disaster Management Authority Act 2005 and Uttar Pradesh Disaster Management Act, such as one authoritative voice and link to Emergency Operations Center

Lobby and advocate for mobilizing resources and strengthening inclusive institutional mechanisms towards DDMA, SDMA, NDMA, CWC through:• Show and tell• Consultation meeting• Policy papers

Difficult: • high rotation• political risks can outweigh humanitarian

risks >> do cost-benefits analysis?

CAPABILITIES AND EVALUATION


PILOT PHASE : CAPABILITY APPROACH (AMARTYA SEN)

Individual differences

Freedom to choose/conversion:• establish local knowledge base (task forces at village and Gram Panchayat level) and technical

infrastructure (critical equipment placed under their control)• create critical mass of change agents

Capabilities:• take into account existing coping mechanisms, such as indigenous knowledge• employ Learning Cycle on building resilient communities

between community practitioners and experts successful in Philippines

Realised functionings:• motivation of volunteers can drop

(e.g. in reading out gauges)• continue capacity building and stimulate

researchers to come with localized models?

BUSINESS MODELS AND FINANCING


COMMERCIALIZATION PHASE: EARLY WARNING INFORMATION SERVICE

Basic early warning should be a public service, but vulnerable communities are currently underserved

Quantify direct and indirect tangible benefits

Explore supplementary ways of financing to reduce costs and increase revenue.

Combine early warning with:• Enhancing access to market

• Trading platform• Market prices

• Livelihood related information• Diseases (crop and cattle)• Weather• Disaster resilient livelihood practices

SCALING UP


COMMERCIALIZATION PHASE

Monitoring and warning:• Blend locally collected data through community-

managed rain gauges and log books systematically with national meteorological and hydrological data

• National institutes extend their reach and forecast at local level and with higher resolution

• Use participatory games?

Communication and dissemination:• Use advanced technology for blasting more than 200

voice SMS at once

Response capacity:• Peer-to-peer training: let experienced villages train

unexperienced villages, use video documentaries

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS


TOWARDS SOCIO-ECONOMICALLY VIABLE CBEWS

The strategic framework with six methodological guidelines and three innovation phases is very useful to identify key areas for socio-economic viability.

For the cross-border CBEWS in India and Nepal:

• Strengthen inclusive institutional mechanisms:• Bring bottom-up NGO activities together with top-down

government activities by multi-level linkages (national, state, district, panchayat)

• Proper business case: joint funding (government and donor), joint resourcing, cost pooling

• Blend regular monitoring by communities systematically with nationally available meteorological and hydrological data to improve forecasting

• Continuous focus on capability development, engage with government endorsed volunteer organizations, replicate from one village to another

• Use serious games and video documentaries

THANK YOU!


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CONTACT DETAILS

We are grateful to:

Yeeshu Shukla, MSc (Christian Aid)dr Bhanu Mall (PVGS)Dev Datta Bhatta (Practical Action, Nepal),Munish Kaushik (Cordaid, India)Marlou Geurts, MA (Cordaid, Netherlands)

Contact details:

[email protected]@tno.nl+31 6 51069884http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcvandenhomberg

iscram asia 2014 marc van den homberg20062014

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