This session is organised in collaboration with the Dutch Relief Alliance.
Please find the concept note here.
Communities are often the first to respond and the last to recover from disasters and other disruptive events, including weather-related disasters and public health emergencies. Strengthening community preparedness shifts humanitarian action from reactive aid to proactive, locally-led resilience. This session explores what community preparedness means and how humanitarian professionals can help strengthen it in contexts with prevalence of acute crises.
Community preparedness refers to a community’s ability to anticipate, withstand and recover from disruptions, by building on local capacities, relationships, and knowledge. It is about supporting communities to act before a crisis hits, by investing in resilient local systems, supporting inclusive local governance, and enabling people to make informed decisions about the risks they face and cope with a rapidly changing environment. A key principle of community preparedness is the active involvement of all local stakeholders—such as residents, local authorities, and businesses—in strengthening community resilience. It is undesirable to place the entire burden of preparedness on the plate of communities, as they rely on contextual political decisions that define the extent to which disasters happen and will affect them.
In the context of unstable humanitarian funding, strengthening community preparedness could be one of the most effective safeguards. Preparedness relates to a range of issues that are usually treated separately, but they are linked, which is why a system-approach is vital. This may sound overwhelming, but it is very possible to act while including the systemic level, without having to address all facets. By supporting communities to develop preparedness plans and risk assessments, and take preventive measures, community preparedness not only enhances resilience but also reduces the human and financial costs associated with disasters.
Objectives of the session:
- Raise the understanding of community preparedness by bridging theory and practice through insights from scholars and practitioners
- Explore actions that help strengthen community preparedness and their opportunities and risks
- Discuss how to ensure that preparedness efforts are genuinely locally-led, without over-responsibilising communities
Times are in CET
9:15 – Arrival
9:30 – Welcome and introductions
9:40 – Speaker contributions and Q&A
10:30 – Group reflections
11:15 – Ways forward
11:30 – End of session
