Characteristics of a safe and resilient community: community based disaster risk reduction study

The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), as the ‘world’s largest humanitarian and development network’ is committed to building safety and resilience through its Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) programmes. As a movement the Red Cross-Red Crescent (RCRC) has significant knowledge and experience of implementing CBDRR programmes. However, defining the aims and objectives of such programmes and the critical factors that influence their impact remains a challenge. This is particularly acute when comparing outcomes and approaches between communities, countries and regions.

CBDRR programmes were carried out in over 700 communities as part of the Tsunami Recovery Programme (TRP) alone. The IFRC have identified this as an opportunity to ‘identify and document lessons learned in implementing at scale CBDRR projects to strengthen community safety and resilience….also [to] use its large evidence base to research new ideas and contribute to the wider efforts in improving CBDRR work within the IFRC’ (IFRC, 2010: 2).

This research report on the Characteristics of a Safe and Resilient Community has been prepared by Arup’s International Development team (Arup ID) on behalf of the IFRC as part of a wider CBDRR Study of the TRP. Specifically, this report draws on the experience of the TRP CBDRR programmes and current literature in order to identify the ‘characteristics of safe and resilient communities; to understand how these characteristics changed over time and how RCRC interventions have contributed to this change’ (IFRC, 2010: 3). It is intended that the characteristics arising from this research will be used in the design, monitoring and evaluation of future programmes. A first step towards this is the lessons learned report which provides a further output from this study. Other outputs of the study include a “who, what, where” database of RCRC CBDRR projects; and a research report identifying the key determinants of a successful CBDRR project.