Community Based Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction Experiences of Centre for Disability in Development (CDD) Bangladesh, May 2010 AHM Noman Khan, Executive Director, CDD

Bangladesh Area - 147,570 squire meter Population (2009) - 164.4 million (estimated) Density – 1,100 per square mile Per Capita Income 641 US$ (2010) Main livelihood – Agriculture Landless people – 44.35% (2001 census) Main Rivers - 232 Poverty – 40% (2005 household survey) Literacy – 53.5% (2007 Human Development Report- UNDP) HDI – 129 among 169 countries (2010) Persons with disabilities – 5.6% - 10% - less than 1% (debatable)

About CDD Established in 1996 Building capacities of development actors to facilitate disability mainstreaming and extend special needs services to persons with disabilities Working with 300+ organizations in Bangladesh

Common Natural Disasters in Bangladesh

Disasters and Bangladesh According to Global Assessment Report 2009 Bangladesh is 3rd amongst 162 countries calculated on Economic value exposed in the hazard zone 1st of 162 countries calculated on number of people exposed in the hazard zone

Few natural disasters in Bangladesh Year DISASTER No. Affected People No. of House damage Fully No. of Dead People 1986 FLOOD/ERROSION 6715734 196803 57 1987 24823376 71572 1470 1995 5806950 79725 56 1996 8106988 218275 76 1997 5008868 13252 125 2007 13343802 81817 970 1970 CYCLONE 1100000   470,000 1988 1006536 788715 9590 1989 346087 12173 573 1990 1015866 75085 132 1991 121229 34791 13798275 819608 138,882 CYCLONE (SIDR) 8923259 564967 3,363 2009 CYCLONE (Aila) 3928238 243191 190

Vulnerabilities of community & persons with disabilities

Vulnerabilities of community & persons with disabilities

Socio-economic conditions

Physical environment

Information and communication: Inaccessible Early Warning System Reliance on others (i.e. family members, caregivers, neighbours, volunteers, rescue & emergency workers, etc) Lack of information about persons with disabilities as they are not included in Capacity and Risk Assessment system.

Emergency Response Invisible in emergency registration system. Need of persons with disabilities are not considered in relief mechanism. They tend to be invisible during disasters. Rescue and evacuation systems are not disability inclusive

Roads were blocked, power and phone lines down. Many of the worst affected areas were cut off, complicating relief efforts. Roads were blocked, power and phone lines down. Photo Source: http://concernbd.blogspot.com/2007/08/relief-distribution-on-august-2007-in.html

Difficult for relief efforts. Roads were blocked, power and phone lines Photo Source: http://concernbd.blogspot.com/2007/08/relief-distribution-on-august-2007-in.html

CDD and Disaster Risk Reduction Initially CDD mainly worked on emergency relief, 30,000 persons with disabilities and their families assisted through emergency relief in 2007 and 2008, But people supported are still vulnerable for any disaster situation.

Hence relief is not the answer! Continued ….. Disaster Disaster Relief Certain Growth Falls further Hence relief is not the answer! Initiated Disability Inclusive DRR as pilot project with CBM support in 2009 for capturing lessons learnt and best practice principles

Areas of Project Intervention Community Mobilization and Awareness Capacity Building Baseline, Capacity & Risk Assessment (CRA) Cross Cutting Issues (Gender, Disability..) Small Mitigation Advocacy and Coordination Livelihood

Major actions Feasibility Stakeholder and beneficiary linkages Formation of Ward Disaster Management Committees Task Forces on Early warning sign, Search, rescue and evacuation, First aid, Damage assessment and Water and sanitation Counseling, information provision and training for persons with disabilities to boost their confidence to participate in DRR activities. Capacity development of stakeholders (WDMC, UDMC, Teachers) on DiDRR

Capacity and Risk Assessment & Contingency planning Continued ….. Capacity and Risk Assessment & Contingency planning Persons with disabilities and community were first trained and then they lead the CRA and CP process. Input of persons with disabilities were taken at all process. The CP were validated in open meeting with local government.

Continued ….. Awareness Raising (Mock drill, Street theatre, Poster, Bill board, Road side stand board, court-yard meetings) It contributed towards a disability friendly environment.

Small scale mitigation: Continued ….. Small scale mitigation: Disability friendly and accessible for persons with disabilities Flood shelter – Shelter management committee formed with persons with disabilities. Special attention to persons with disabilities, women, children and old age people. Houses, tube-wells and toilets for persons with disabilities

Houses, tube-wells and toilets made accessible for persons with disabilities

Accessible Early warning, rescue and evacuation: Continued ….. Accessible Early warning, rescue and evacuation: Flag pole, color pillars for water level, and announcements by , Community people and persons with disabilities trained to understand and disseminate early warning

Volunteers identified to inform and rescue persons with disabilities

Accessible Rescue Boat constructed for evacuation

Disaster risk considered livelihood Continued ….. Disaster risk considered livelihood Livelihood training and asset transfer to persons with disabilities, allowing them to be engaged throughout the year.

This has increased respect of persons with disabilities within family and community..

Special needs services Continued ….. Special needs services Therapy, assistive devices and referral Increased functional capacity of persons with disabilities and increased their mobility that positively influenced their scale of participation in DRR activities

Advocacy & linkages Continued ….. Local level (Union council, Sub-district council) and National level Persons with disabilities from community participated and shared their life experiences and raised their voice for demand inclusion of disability issues into all phases of disaster management

Good practices and lesson learnt documentations Continued ….. Good practices and lesson learnt documentations Baseline and after project study allowed documentation of changes, good practices and lessons learnt. Video documentary and print documents disseminated to concerned actors.

Good practices and lessons learnt

Ward disaster management committees & task forces There were no disaster management committee at ward (community) level It is formed by community participation Each committee comprised with 25 members where at least 30% are women and 10% member are persons with disability Each committee has five task forces i.e. Early warning sign; Search, rescue and evacuation; First aid; Damage assessment and Water and sanitation. Persons with disabilities are members. They identified their vulnerabilities and capacities. Based on that they made their contingency plan. They take initiative if there is any disaster in the community.

The WDMC is a critical structure at the ward level for many reasons: Continued ….. The WDMC is a critical structure at the ward level for many reasons: provides local context disaster response, local representation, a structure for sustainability, a link to the local government structure, the representation of women and disability inclusion, provides volunteerism opportunities

Local govt. support Union council committed to allocate fund for continuation of DiDRR work in the community Union council acknowledged WDMC as a community structure and will encourage their participation in local development planning on disability and disaster issues They have included persons with disabilities in the Union Disaster Management Committee Local govt. is facilitating linkages of the WDMC with local administration They have list of persons with disabilities and can quickly respond during & after disaster

visible support for persons with disabilities and the community people Continued ….. It was possible to get their support by involving them in various activities from the beginning of the project initiation: taking their opinions into consideration, orient them on DiDRR, visible support for persons with disabilities and the community people

Community Support People from the community gave soil and land to raise the plinth of two flood shelters. Most of the community people are now willing to include persons with disabilities into all social and development opportunities Community are mobilized and expressed readiness to lead DiDRR activities even at end of project support. Neighbors are sensitized and trained to support persons with disabilities and their families in disaster situation Local trained teachers are willing to extend support on DRR activities and to persons with disabilities.

Accessibility demonstration Community people and local development actors got idea about accessibility issues seeing accessible flood shelters, houses, latrines, tube-wells, boat. They acknowledge the need for accessibility in all structures and realizes that it will benefit all and not only persons with disabilities

Participation of persons with disabilities Persons with disabilities are members of different committees. They are active in local awareness raising, advocacy with local government, and all DiDRR activities. They have clearly demonstrated that if opportunities are provided, if respect & dignity is there, they can be an equal contributor as any other citizen of the country.

Challenges At the beginning it was difficult to convince local community why DiDRR is required and how it can benefit all members of the community. Initially it was difficult to include persons with different disabilities, especially women with disabilities in implementation process. They lacked in confidence. This was the result of years of exclusion and lack of opportunities. They were mostly seen as recipients rather than valued contributors. But this perception has been changed within project period.

Continued ….. Local means of transportation and road conditions is a major barrier to participation by persons with disabilities. This is worse in rainy season. The process from sensitization to practice is time consuming. It is a huge challenge to make this shift within a certain time. The target group require hands on support for a longer time for them to comprehend DiDRR and to transform that understanding into action.

Equal opportunities and full participation for persons with disabilities in all spheres of life Thanks CDD, Bangladesh Email <cdd@bangla.net>