Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities: The infoasaid-ActionAid Partnership and Communications Initiative in Kenya

For ActionAid, the concept of communication with disaster affected communities links closely with its
human rights based approach. ActionAid sees the purpose of this work as:
? Saving lives and reducing suffering
? Increasing its accountability to rights-holders (the people it works with)
? Empowering communities by facilitating access to the information they need to be able to take
decisions, ask questions and demand their rights from duty-bearers. This fosters a sense of active
citizenship which helps communities become active agents in the process of change.

The project has two key aims:
1. To reduce food insecurity through the provision of relevant and timely information
2. To improve the speed and effectiveness of two-way communication between ActionAid and the
local population, and so improve the efficiency of ActionAid’s emergency response programme in
Isiolo.