Mission
Tearfund is a Christian relief and development agency working with a global network of local partners (including community organisations, faith-based organisations, churches, and inspired individuals) to help eradicate poverty.
To help communities increase their resilience to shocks and stresses; to address the underlying power relations and broken relationships that make people vulnerable to disasters; and to facilitate timely and high-quality disaster response.
* Community DRR facilitated by partners in countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Haiti, India, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, Rwanda, Somaliland, Sudan, and Uganda.
* DRR policy and advocacy work through GNDR and Bond.
* Publications on DRR for practical use by Tearfund partners and others (including handbooks "Reducing Risks of Disaster in Our Communities" and "Disasters and the Local Church")
* Global Network of CSOs for Disaster Reduction (GNDR)
* Bond Disaster Risk Reduction Group
* Joint Learning Initiative on Local Faith Communities and Resilience
* UK Inter-agency Working Group on Resilience
Joel Hafvenstein and Mike Wiggins, Disaster Risk Reduction & Environment Advisors
[email protected], [email protected]
http://www.tilz.tearfund.org
- Advocacy to international actors, governments, and church networks to prioritise community-level resilience and local risk governance
- Participation directly or through partners in national platforms
- Local government institutional strengthening e.g. supporting Indian partner to develop participatory district disaster management plan process, now adopted by State of Bihar.
- Community participatory risk assessments (hazard, vulnerability & capacity) carried out in many countries using PADR methodology.
- Support to community-level early warning systems.
- Commissioned several cost-benefit analyses of DRR -- e.g. "Investing in Communities" report from Malawi, which found drought resilience activities had a 1:24 cost-benefit ratio, and synthesis report comparing all known CBAs of community DRR.
- DRR public awareness activities e.g. radio programming and promotion in schools in Afghanistan
- Integration of DRR and development strategies of Tearfund and many partners; effect on disaster risk included as one of the twelve quality standards against which all projects are assessed.
- Community based mitigation projects ongoing in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, India, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, and Somaliland.
- Community-level preparedness and contingency planning in countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Haiti, India, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sudan, and Uganda.
Voluntary Commitments
The Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments (SFVC) online platform allows stakeholders to inform the public about their work on DRR. The SFVC online platform is a useful toolto know who is doing what and where for the implementation of the Sendai Framework, which could foster potential collaboration among stakeholders. All stakeholders (private sector, civil society organizations, academia, media, local governments, etc.) working on DRR can submit their commitments and report on their progress and deliverables.