The Global India Programme on Food and Food Safety, Disaster Reduction and Promoting the Inclusion of Marginalized Communities and their Improved Access to Various Public Welfare Programs will be implemented by Caritas India in partnership with Caritas Germany. The intervention benefits from more than 40 years of partnership between the two like-minded organisations, and a wide range of experience in joint programs and projects in the areas of emergency relief, disaster preparedness, nutrition, and social work in India and beyond.

The programme is multi-level and will focus on the Indian states of Assam, Bihar and Odisha with some parts of the Sundarbans (West Bengal) in the first phase. An exchange of experiences and approaches is also foreseen with the adjacent areas in Bangladesh and Nepal.

The main beneficiaries of the programme are traditionally marginalized groups, officially defined by the Indian authorities as “Scheduled Castes” (SCs) and “Scheduled Tribes” (STs), which live in the rural areas of selected districts. The Global India programme will be implemented with and through 21 local partners, with Caritas India as the coordinating body. The Objectives of the programme is Poverty Reduction and Food Security, Promoting Social Inclusion of Particularly Marginalised Groups and Increasing Resilience to Disasters in High-Risk Areas will make a sustainable contribution to SDG 2 (Ending Hunger, Achieving Food Security and Better Nutrition and Promoting Sustainable Agriculture), SDG 10 (Reducing Inequality within and Between States) and SDG 13 (Sustainable Measures to Combat Climate Change and Its Impacts)”.

The intended effect of the program is to improve the living situation of particularly marginalised population groups has been sustainably and structurally improving food security, strengthening resilience to natural disasters, and increasing social inclusion in all target regions. The main outcomes of the program are Increasing disaster resilience, improving food security and Improved Social inclusion.

To achieve the first outcome, a programme is planned to strengthen risk governance at a local level in terms of the preparing community to face the disasters effectively.  In order to achieve the desired results, risk assessment is essential and community participation is another important factor for building resilience among them. So participatory disaster risk assessment (PDRA) is given important and initiating the PDRA at the community level needs experts to facilitate at a different level, without knowledge on PDRA it is not possible for the partners to initiate the PDRA process at any level.

Staff training on PDRA techniques and tools was conducted at Satapada, Odisha from 17th July to 21st July 2021 including two days of field practices in Anchalik Jana Seva Anusthan (AJSA) programme areas. There were 15 participants from the Balasore Social Service Society (BSSS), Society for Welfare, Animation and Development Berhampur, AJSA, and OROSA forum. The objective of the training was “To enhance the knowledge and skill of programme partners staff on PDRA tools and able to use PDRA tools at the community level for risk assessment.”

All Programme Coordinators, Community Animators of three Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) partners, Programme Associates and Programme officers from OROSA Forum staff actively participated in the training programme. Mr. Abhishek Kumar and Ms. Kalika Mohapatra facilitated the training programme and discussed topics of community-based disaster risk management, PRA tools and PDRA tools and methodologies in detail during the five days training programme. After the theoretical sessions, all the participants got the opportunities to practise these tools of PDRA exercises with the Community of Sipakuda and Gabakunda villages of Krushna Prasad Block of Puri, Odisha.

The first-day field experiences were also discussed in detail and proper planning was made to use all these tools effective way to extract information from the community. The second-day field practices helped all the staff members to improve their skill for using the tools effective way.

Most of the partner staff were new to the DRR programme but they enjoyed a lot to learn the DRR activities and use the Participatory Rural Appraisal tools for risk assessment for risk reduction and management.

All the participants resonated that it was new learning for all, though some of them were having prior experiences on DRR never applied the tools in the programme, which was a great learning for them and able to enhance their knowledge on tools and methodologies.

On the last day, all the partner staff prepared a realistic plan of action for the PDRA exercises at their programme areas. At the end of the session, all the participants expressed their confidence to start PDRA sessions in their respective programme areas.