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Date: October 22 to October 24, 2007
Venue: Vedic Village, Kolkata
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Contents
Background of the workshop
Objective
of the workshop
Participants of the workshop
Agenda of the workshop
Proceedings of the workshop
Future plan/Steps ahead
Evaluation of the workshop
Annexure 1: List of participants
Annexure 2: Agenda of the workshop
Annexure 3: Field visit plan
Annexure 4: Workshop-evaluation report
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Background:
The first thing that springs out in our mind while talking about natural
disasters is the uncertain nature of its occurrence and the limitation of human
capacity to control it. It was of comparatively less importance to relate the
impact of natural disasters with the development of a nation even few decades
back. Being implicit in all conversations related to human development, the
issue of natural disaster and its impact on the national progress always got a
non-focused attitude as something that remains outside the purview of any human
intervention. In most cases, the only intervention possible, as perceived by
the planners were the disaster responses in the form of relief and
rehabilitation.
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On the other hand,
the increase in the natural disasters in recent years as well as the occurrence
of disasters in unexpected areas with greater magnitude, leading to escalation
of the expenditures for relief and rehabilitation, makes it mandatory to seek
out measures to reduce the loss and damage to lives, livestock and property.
Hence the need for disaster preparedness has been a subject widely discussed
among the humanitarian agencies. The realization that disasters cannot be
averted but its impact could be reduced through various measures of disaster
preparedness taken by community, which in turn will reduce their dependency on
relief, is a significant turn in the discussion of development dynamics. This
view has got reflected in various international covenants and discussions such
as Yokohama Declaration in May 1984. |
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From its very
inception, Caritas India has always been prompt to provide humanitarian
assistance to victims of natural and manmade calamities. On-disaster relief
measures were always followed with further support to rehabilitate affected
population. |
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In recent years
Caritas has enhanced its responding capacity to assist the distressed people
more promptly and systematically. |
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Thus in 2001 when
the West Bengal Regional Forum of Caritas entered into partnership with UNICEF
and the Inter Agency Group for a Community Based Disaster Preparedness
programme, Caritas Germany took an active interest and extended wholehearted
support. Seeing that the UNICEF programme was unique and it became a model for
others, In 2002 Caritas initiated a small pilot project in four dioceses of
West Bengal. |
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Inspired by the
effectiveness of CBDP as a methodology for motivating community to take
informed decisions and timely actions for preparedness in the context of
natural disasters, Caritas India has broad-based the programme in other regions
of India. |
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Other Caritas
organizations in Asia are also initiating their programmes for disaster
preparedness. Caritas Bangladesh has already initiated their programme on
Disaster Preparedness. |
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of activities to be conducted within a certain period of time. It needs through
discussion and critical analysis to make the programme community driven and
contextual to its area of implementation. With anobjective of creating a common
platform for all the Caritas Asia organizations already working or planning to
initiate the CBDP programme, a consultative workshop was organized in Kolkata,
West Bengal during October 22 to 24, 2007. Caritas India has taken a lead role
in coordinating and making logistics arrangements for the workshop. |
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The workshop was
divided in two parts; two-day in house discussion and one-day exposure visit to
CBDP implementation areas in West Bengal. First and the third day were devoted
for discussion and planning while the second day of the workshop was devoted
for field visit.
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Specific
objectives of the workshop: |
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Sharing the concepts and components of CBDP programme and the key principles of
the programme
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Arrive at a common understanding on concept and components of CBDP
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Sharing the situations or contexts in each participatory country related to
natural disasters and its impact
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Sharing the experiences of implementing the CBDP programme from the countries
where the programme has been implemented for some time
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Having an exposure visit to the CBDP implementation areas in West Bengal, India
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Establishing a formal networking among Caritas Asia organizations
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Planning for Pan-Asian CBDP programmes
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Formulating a tentative plan for initiating the CBDP programme by Caritas Asia
as against the situations and expectations from the Caritas Asia organisations
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Day 1: October 22,
2007 |
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After the formal
inauguration of the workshop, the objective of the workshop was explained and
the participants shared their own expectations from the workshop. |
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The first day of the
CBDP workshop was focused on sharing the experiences of working on CBDP in
various countries. Representatives of Caritas organisations in Bangladesh,
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cango, China and CORDAID have shared their experiences of
working in the direction of mobilizing community to take informed action for
reducing the impact of natural disasters. The presentations by the selected
participants were followed by moderated discussions and some key points have
emerged out of that as follows: |
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CBDP is not a choice but a must for the countries that experience natural
disaster in Asia
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The type, dynamics and severity of disasters differ from one country to other
and in some countries like Sri Lanka the political problem impedes the progress
of any programme. CBDP has to be designed in a very contextual manner to
address the particular type of disaster and other contextual issues.
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Some other issues that could not be termed as natural disasters sometime become
threatening and there should be some clear strategies for including or
addressing them through CBDP
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There should be more clarity on the concept and components of the CBDP
programme that would enable other countries to initiate the programme in their
region.
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The next session was
the discussion of the CBDP concept as perceived by Caritas India and sharing of
the position paper on CBDP developed by Fr. Pradeep Roy, Consultant, Caritas
India. During the presentation, Fr. Pradeep highlighted the components of CBDP
and explained the rationales behind them. Mr. Jude Henriques of UNICEF
moderated the session and the key points that have come of the discussion were
as follows: |
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CBDP as a programme rests on the realization that community has the capacity to
take informed action to reduce the loss of life and property during natural
disaster
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CBDP aspires to bring a change in the mindset of community in the form of
reduced dependency on relief. This change of mindset also becomes visible at
the Government level as well as at the programme management level
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CBDP as a methodology initiates a process of development that triggers out
other development processes initiated by the community. So, CBDP is the
foundation on which other programmes could be built but this should be done
very carefully
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There are various models of CBDP that has been followed and promoted by various
agencies. CBDP model promoted by Caritas India has its own way of addressing
the issue of disaster preparedness and this has been proved to be a very
effective methodology equally efficient for other programmes such as Polio
eradication
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Success of CBDP largely depends on the active and claimed participation of
community and modern concept of involving all stakeholders starting from
community to the Government.
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A programme for changing mindset (such as CBDP) requires a different approach
and methodology than the traditional one
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CBDP as a methodology has some components that help to make it sustainable and
this has happened in West Bengal
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Mr. Jude Henriques
of UNICEF presented the next session. The rationale of the programme and the
key areas of the programme were highlighted in his presentation. He narrated
his experiences of designing and coordinating CBDP since its pilot phase and
explained the initiatives taken by UNICEF to broad base the programme with
strong Government collaboration. Citing examples of challenges faced by UNICEF
to motivate Government officials to participate in the programme, Mr. Jude
Stressed upon the necessity of creating a good linkage with Government. |
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The next session was
a joint presentation by two partner organisations (namely Seva Kendra Calcutta
and Sreema Mahila Samity) working under CBDP programme supported by Caritas
India in West Bengal. During the presentation, key components of the programme
were discussed. The strategies that have been followed by the CBDP implementing
partners were discussed and the presenters also shared the challenges and
difficulties encountered during the programme implementation. |
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This presentation
was followed by an overall discussion and evaluation of the day’s activity,
which was moderated by Mr. Jude Henriques. The day’s proceedings ended with the
sharing of next day’s field visit plan. |
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Day 2: October 23,
2007
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| On the second day of workshop, an exposure visit was
arranged where all the participants got a chance to witness various activities
conducted under the programme at the community level. While planning for the
field visit, emphasis was given on demonstration of various activities
conducted under CBDP. The overall objective was to facilitate a process of
learning by seeing where the participants got chance to interact with the
community members and clarify various points related to the implementation of
the programme at community level. |
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Day 3: October 24, 2007
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The third day was
planned for having a joint discussion on specific points related to CBDP in the
light of the discussions on Day 1 and experiences of field visit the previous
day. After the initial introduction, Mr. Jude Henriques requested the
participants to get divided into four groups and discuss the possible steps for
initiating a CBDP programme there. The four groups discussed about the
following: |
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Earthquakes
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Tsunami
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Cyclone/ Storm
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Landslides and Flash floods
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The groups discussed about one disaster and made some plan for initiating CBDP
programme in their area. After the presentations by each group, participants
shared their individual ideas about the programme and almost all of them
mentioned that as a methodology, CBDP is unique and its proper implementation
would require further discussion and training for which Caritas Asia can take a
lead role.
The next presentation was made by Mr. Peter Seidel of Caritas Germany.
Discussing the rationale behind initiating an endeavor like CBDP, he stressed
on the issues that need to be addressed through a community based programme
like CBDP. He explained the relevance of the CBDP programme in the context of
basic Caritas principle. He stressed on the importance of keeping some basic
minimum standard of the CBDP at all levels and for that he stressed on
developing some quality criteria for the programme.
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The next session was a common discussion by all the participants regarding
their individual plan for initiating CBDP and their expectations from Caritas
Asia to launch the programme successfully. The key areas where the
participating countries have requested for support from Caritas Asia were as
follows:
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Common understanding, common terminology to be developed to formulate an
uniform conceptual structure of CBDP and making CBDP a wider concept
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Capacity building programmes to be organized at country level by Caritas Asia
to equip the CBDP implementing countries to plan and implement CBDP. Capacity
building programmes should cover programme designing, implementing and
monitoring and evaluation of the programme.
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Arrangements to be made by Caritas Asia for the follow up workshops after
Kolkata and other inter country exposures
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Caritas Asia may take initiatives to form a small working group for situation
analysis and preparation of modules according to the situation in different
countries
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A database or list of resource persons could be made and maintained by Caritas
Asia for timely support to the countries in implementing CBDP.
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Some viable system has to be made for sharing of information, experiences and
best practices/good examples among the CBDP implementing countries in Asia
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Caritas Asia can take initiatives for establishing a good network of agencies
working on CBDP and related programmes at Asia level. This would help to
mainstream CBDP among funding agencies and facilitate the process of arriving
at some common basic principles
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Orientation programme for the priests on CBDP could be organized to help them
understand the concept
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Caritas Asia can take initiative to publish a manual on CBDP
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Personnel could be hired to support the programme at India and Asia level
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Future Plan/ Steps ahead: |
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As a response to the expectations from the participants, Bp. Yvon Ambrose
moderated the discussion and shared some strategies that would be taken by
Caritas Asia to initiate and strengthen the existing CBDP programmes in Asia.
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Capacity building support will be provided (for programme planning,
organisation, advocacy)
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Newsletter for dissemination of information on CBDP would be published
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Dialoguing with other funding partners at international level could be done by
Caritas Asia to establish a network of organizations/ agencies working on CBDP
or related programmes
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Some initiative would be taken to clarify the concept of CBDP and arrive at a
common understanding regarding the programme within a few months
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Other development related issues (as mentioned by participants) will also be
discussed at various levels and support will be provided
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Initiatives would be taken to prepare and publish a set of materials like
manual, guidelines for CBDP
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After this, a joint
resolution was formulated for submission to the minister of Civil Defence,
Govt. of West Bengal with the signatures from all the participants. |
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With the vote of
thanks and distribution of mementoes to the participants, the workshop came its
end. |
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Impact of the workshop: Evaluation |
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A structured evaluation format was distributed among the participants and they
were requested submit the filled up questionnaire. The formats were analyzed
and following points came as the key evaluation points by the participants:
The entire workshop was rated quite high by the participants though some of them
expressed their concern for the shortage of time for discussion. The common
remarks regarding these were ‘very interesting’ and ‘useful’.
Most of the participants found the workshop methodology, presentations and the
documents that have been circulated as quite enriching and relevant.
Regarding the field visit the overall impression of the participants was that
the visit was very effective for them to get a clear understanding on CBDP
programme.
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Most of the
participants expressed their happiness regarding the venue of the workshop and
other arrangements. Some of them found it excellent and very conducive
environment for cross learning. |