dhan's experience on drr

DHAN’s Experience on

Disaster Risk Reduction

DHAN Foundation, Madurai

(Background Paper for Knowledge building Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction, Madurai Symposium, 28th September 2007)

DHAN FoundationDHAN Foundation

2Content…

•

About DHAN : Programmes, Approach and reach

•

DHAN’s Experiences in Disaster Risk Reduction

•

Inferences

•

Purpose of the Workshop


3

DHAN’s Mission

“Building People and Institutions for

development innovations

and to enable the poor communities for

poverty reduction and self reliance”.


4

•

Kalanjiam:

Community Banking Programme

•

Vayalagam:

Tank fed Agriculture Development

Programme

•

Tata -

Dhan Academy

•

Information Communication Technology for Poor

•

Rain fed Agriculture Development

•

Working with Panchayats

DHAN’s Programmes…


5 Human Resource…

•

Professionals

:

349

•

Accounts and Administrative Staff

:

302

•

People functionaries

: 2827


6

CommunityCommunity OrganizationOrganization

Scale down technologyScale down technology FacilitatingFacilitating environmentenvironment

Approach: Program triangle


7

Structure

Financial

Women Savings & Credit Groups

(15-20 members)

Cluster Development Association

(15-20 groups)

Commercial Banks

Federation (150-200 groups) At the Block level Apex Banks

Governance


8 Families Reached •

Kalanjiam

-

389,641

•

Vayalagam

- 107,090

•

IT for Poor

- 145,000

•

Panchayat

-

11,000

•

Rain fed

-

6,123

•

Post Tsunami rehabilitation

-

62,000

(Covering 9 States, 240 blocks, 8184 villages

Urban, Rural, Tribal and Coastal Contexts)


9

DHAN’s DRR experiences in Coastal Context

•

Post-Tsunami intervention :60,000 families in 300 villages of 10

coastal districts

•

Approach:

–

Building people institutions

–

All interventions routed through people institution

–

Microfinance for disaster recovery, livelihood restoration and vulnerability

reduction

–

Intervention with long term development plan (3 phases –relief, restoration

and conservation)


10

DHAN’s DRR experiences in Coastal Context

1.

Humanitarian response to Development (fast track )

2.

Enabling model : support as soft loan and not as grant

3.

ICT for knowledge dissemination, EWS and Technology Transfer–

125

VICs

and 5 CC’s;

4.

Coastal Agriculture (CA) Resource Centres for strengthening CA

5.

Promotion of Disaster management committees linked with VIC’s

and

provided with safety kits

6.

Life and Asset Insurance coverage for all the beneficiaries

7.

Shift from disaster recovery/ management to Eco-system restoration and

conservation

8.

Internal Capacity Building on disaster management.

9.

Contingency Plan


11Inferences…

•

Spontaneous response from DHAN People Institutions -

sense of mutuality.

•

Microfinance is effective in disaster recovery, livelihood restoration and

disaster management

•

ICT a promising tool for establishing EWS

•

Rich traditional knowledge in EW signals, ensuring food security, seed

storage devices etc.,

•

Informal Panchayats – strong – with systems for disaster management


12 Inferences…•

Realisation at all levels on the linkage between the livelihood

sustainability, resource conservation and Disaster Risk Reduction.

•

Coastal areas prone for frequent natural disasters –

need for creating

risk reduction fund at People institutions

•

Felt need for building Internal capacity on DRR,DP&M of DHAN

Professionals, field staff and community representatives

•

Slow rate of technology transfer –

ex: vulnerability maps prepared but

inaccessible, flood prone, inundation areas demarcated but not

disseminated, Remote Sensing is still remote and cannot be accessed,


13

Experiences in Drought Mitigation and Management

Rain fed Agriculture Programme : Drought prone, rain fed districts – 6,000 + families)

Approach :

•

Long term development interventions with vulnerable communities to

help build their capacity to recover from disasters

•

Setting up mechanisms for disaster preparedness and create exclusive

fund at People Institution level to pro actively respond at times of

disasters

•

Capacity building of the vulnerable communities and making them to

adopt coping strategy with suitable need based interventions


14 Strategies adopted…

•

RWH / Run off collection through surface and sub surface structures

•

Minimising evapotranspiration

loss

•

Cultivating drought tolerant crops

•

Shift to perennial tree crops –

dry land horticultural tree crops

•

Creating livestock assets and support for fodder

•

Identifying alternate source of income generation

•

Constitute drought mitigation fund at the people institutions


15Strategies cont...

•

Small grant facility for CBO and mechanism to treat 50%

of the grant as interest free loan to be repaid in flexible

terms and exclusive fund for drought mitigation and

management

•

Constructing community bore wells

•

Deepening of village ponds, constructing of farm ponds

and desilting

supply channels & leverage of government

funds (Rs.12.5 Lakhs)


16 Impact

•

Interventions reached 27,500 vulnerable families

•

Alternate livelihood options ensured

•

Village water resources rejuvenated

•

Active community participation at all levels of programme

implementation


17

Challenges•

Drought Warning System in place but poor dissemination mechanisms (NRSA)

•

Drought handling protocols yet to be practiced (intensity based intervention)

•

At present limited financial instruments for drought mitigation

•

DHAN is piloting on mutual crop and weather insurance. More time

needed to

assess its effectiveness; intervention also needs back end support

•

Communities to be sensitised on Insurance literacy

•

Experiences show that the present set up of programme implementation at

state level is weak (top down approach)

•

Shift in approach from drought management to mitigation


18

Experiences in Drought Mitigation and Management

Panchayat

Programme : Working with 25 Panchayats

in 5 districts (coastal and rural contexts)

•

Panchayats

being the nearest Government to the community, effective governance

leads to effective leverage of Government fund and schemes at crisis situation

•

Initiatives for own fund creation at Panchayat

enables Panchayat

to respond effectively

in disaster situations–

Micro-leasing (Vaaram), Leasing of land, Infrastructure creation

•

Integrating DRR in Annual Micro plans

•

Vulnerability reduction through revolving fund assistance (Rs.50,000 for 25 Panchayats)


19 Inferences•

Promotion of working committee involving all stakeholders with fund,

functions and functionaries

•

Exclusive risk management fund available in traditional Panchayats

•

Need for a Corpus at Panchayat

to meet eventualities

•

Infrastructure creation at Panchayats

with DRR and DM focus.

(usufructs rights)


20

Experiences in Flood Mitigation and Management

Vayalagam

Foundation :

Water Resources –

Rejuvenation, Restoration and Management thru community institutions.

Impact of Floods

•

Impact on lives and livelihoods of the community

•

Breach of tank bund, damage of shutters / surplus weir, loss of standing crops etc.,

Programme interventions and impact:

•

851 Tank Associations (TA) organized in 751 Villages of 4 States.

•

Mobilized about Rs 5 million from people for tanks, ponds and watershed development

•

Mobilized approx. Rs 120 million from government agencies for tanks, ponds and watershed

development

•

User planned, implemented and maintained -

> 800 tanks

•

Created Rs. 3.5 million endowment at multiple tank institutions


21 Inferences…

•

Role of People Institutions –

enabling mode –

found effective in food

management and partial tank restoration

•

Tank Endowment –

Resource made available and accessible for People

Institutions facilitating immediate response

•

Farmers realise

the importance and created exclusive risk management

fund in people institutions.

•

Community involvement in implementation ensures immediate action,

timely, quality and cost effective.

•

2005 floods : 2911 farming families benefitted, 2779 acres of crops saved


22 Challenges…•

Risk reduction not an integral part of water management

•

Investments required on risk mitigation rather than risk management

•

Flood forecasting poor in tank based agriculture areas(39k in TN, 80k in

AP, 40k+ in Karnataka)

•

Tanks also acts as flood moderators; Interventions to deepen and

desilt

so

that tanks can act as flood moderators

•

Regular risk assessment to be part of tank management

•

Technology for agriculture practices in prolonged water inundated areas

and affordable flood resistant houses


23Communities Perspective…

Day long deliberation on Disaster Risk Reduction as part of Madurai Symposium

on 26th

September 2007

Sessions included :

•

Community Based Disaster Management –

with respect to coastal areas

•

Flood Mitigation : Community Initiatives and Practices in Tank cascades

•

Agricultural Risks –

Behavioral, adaptation and policy issues

•

Strengthening Early Warning System through Village Information Centres

•

Workshop on Mutual Insurance to cover risks in its entirety

•

Workshop on contextual risk and vulnerability


24Recommendations and Resolutions

•

Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMC) to be established in all

disaster prone villages

•

CDMC’s

to work in close contact with Government and Non-Government

organisations

•

Rich traditional knowledge on risk reduction should be documented,

disseminated and practiced as part of EWS

•

Resolved to establish Risk Management fund in each people institutions and

similar funds to be available at Panchayat

level.

•

Ecosystems to be restored, conserved and benefits to be shared and kept at

village level institutions as part of risk management fund

•

Insurance for Coastal communities covering health, life and assets


25Recommendations and Resolutions

•

Awareness on CDMC, capacity building and mock exercises to be conducted at regular

frequent intervals

•

DRR and management to be made part of the curriculum in schools and colleges

•

District Disaster Management Plans made available in all the Panchayats

•

Research institutions to take up research on disaster mitigation

based on communities

experience and traditional knowledge and disseminate the findings back to the

community

•

Proper drainage systems to be established in coastal flood prone

areas and existing

systems to be renovated

•

Best performing CDMC can be recognized through suitable rewards


26Inferences

•

Strong perception at grass roots to shift gear from crisis management to DRR

•

Need for integrating disaster risk reduction in development planning process

•

Need for capacity building of the professionals in development sector and community

representatives

•

Need for creating context specific models on DRR

•

Need for attitudinal change (micro insurance)

•

Disaster to development; at times Development to disaster

•

Disaster risk reduction needs holistic approach


27Purpose of the workshop

•

Appraise the current status and challenges of DRR in India

•

Mainstreaming DRR in development planning

•

Identify research and capacity building needs for overcoming

the challenges

•

Identify areas of collaboration

Thank you

dhan's experience on drr

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