Disaster Risk Reduction & Emergency Aid
When disaster strikes, fast and adequate emergency aid saves lives. But good disaster readiness also saves lives during the disaster and helps make sure that after the acute phase, people can pick up the pieces and go on with their lives faster. Together with local aid organisations, Cordaid is helping the poorest population groups prepare for disaster situations.
In emergency situations, the poorest are the most vulnerable. They cannot invest in extra protection like reinforced houses or private water reserves. Cordaid starts with the assumption that the hardest hit know best where the threats are, what they can do about them and what help they need to better protect themselves against disasters. Cordaid then supports communities in prevention measures, like improving infrastructure or planting trees to help prevent flooding and landslides. These are ways local communities are increasing their own resilience.
A disaster is a disaster
To do this, Cordaid is working with local aid organisations and authorities, helping local communities identify the risks themselves - both from natural disasters (flooding, earthquakes, drought, etc.) and the man-made disasters borne from armed political or economic conflicts (destructive harvesting of resources, industrialisation, etc.). Because a disaster is a disaster, whatever the cause. Communities are then in a better position to handle emergencies, or better yet, prevent disasters. At the same time, communities and local organisations are holding their governments to account for assistance where there is none or better support where there is, not only before (prevention) but during (emergency aid) and after (reconstruction) the disaster.
Emergency aid in conflict areas
Major disasters always call for external assistance. To get that help moving fast and effectively, Cordaid is training local partner organisations in providing emergency aid. Things like rapid assessment of needs in the wake of a disaster, setting up distribution systems, and emergency situation logistics. In countries or areas where recurring natural disasters are aggravated by conflict-based human disasters (like Sudan, Pakistan, the Aceh region of Indonesia, or Sri Lanka), we make sure that the emergency aid does not fan the flames. And wherever possible, we try to use our interventions to contribute to solutions for the conflict.
Local community plays key role
This way, Cordaid is not only saving lives in the short term, but permanently changing power relationships for the better: poor communities are discovering the rights they have, demanding a voice in national governmental plans and claiming public resources. And the community itself plays a crucial role in this process, both in organising preventive measures and in the emergency aid in response to a disaster. This is what we mean by community-managed disaster risk reduction (CMDRR) and emergency aid.
Emergency aid and structural aid
We link emergency aid to structural aid. This means that after the disaster, we support the reconstruction, for example in the earthquake-affected areas in Indonesia (2005), Pakistan (2006) and Haiti (2010), and the areas hit by the tsunami in 2005. We also work with partner organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin America on programmes for disaster risk management. This involves using the innovative expertise of Dutch companies and research institutes like Disaster Studies at Wageningen University and the climate programme HIER. In the reconstruction, we start by looking at what the people need. After an earthquake or flood, after the emergency aid phase we shift focus to infrastructure, restoring health care, building houses and creating employment.
The focal theme is:
