Capacity-Building and Organizing

The program aims at preparing vulnerable rural communities to lessen, if not prevent, the damage and/or loss of homes, lives and livelihoods as a result of natural calamities that frequent the Philippines. IRDF employs a participatory approach to disaster risk reduction by involving a large array of stakeholders such as the local communities, local and national governments, scientists, NGOs, faith groups, schools and the private sector. This allows for the integration of local and scientific knowledge as well as top-down and bottom-up actions. Activities include information dissemination, trainings, drills, and the participatory 3-dimensional mapping that consists of constructing relief maps from locally available materials over which are overlapped thematic layers of geographical information. The program capacitates local communities in early warning systems, planning for disaster preparedness and contingency, and increasing resiliency of communities.