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Community Participation in Recovery. Jon Bennett Director, Oxford Development Consultants Wenchuan Earthquake Response, China Workshop, July 14-15, 2008, Beijing. Different situations. People located in site-adjacent shelter, host families, rural and urban self-settlement,
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Community Participation in Recovery Jon Bennett Director, Oxford Development Consultants Wenchuan Earthquake Response, China Workshop, July 14-15, 2008, Beijing
Different situations People located in • site-adjacent shelter, • host families, • rural and urban self-settlement, • collective centres and planned camps Options • Support to host families, • cash for owner-built shelter; • cash or vouchers for materials
Strategic planning • A timed sequence of priorities is required • With limited resources, have an initially modest strategy that puts quality of approach over quantity. • Apply minimum standards – equity of assistance • Centralise the learning – have a coordinating body be responsible for monitoring, evaluation and dissemination of findings
Risks • Poorly facilitated participation can reinforce existing power structures that marginalise certain groups. Local leaders may influence targeting in relief/recovery distributions, excluding some people. • People who benefit from a project may have a vested interest in seeing the project continue and be less likely to criticise the project or discuss problems. Developing monitoring systems that seek information from less biased sources can be a way around this. • Participation requires time and commitment from both agencies and communities. Communities take on extra work, for which they are rarely compensated.
How to avoid risks • Ensure a representative sample of people for the focal groups – remember balance of gender, rural/urban, farmer/artisan, migrant/permanent resident, etc. • Participation needs to be monitored. For example: (1)Beneficiary surveys (2)Complaint mechanisms and other feedback systems in post-distribution monitoring (3) Independent evaluation
Stage 1: Planning (3 parts) (1) Strategy Plan - a broad framework for rehabilitation (Mission, Goals, Objectives and broad indicators). Project team (2) Community Action Plan - active consultation so that strategy is culturally and environmentally compliant, acceptable to the people and within the framework/guidelines set by local government. Local workshops with the community (3) Implementation Plan - to increase the capacity of the community for more effective response. Project team facilitates and coordinates inputs.
Stage 2: Implementation (3 parts) (1) Needs Assessment - includes recognising community needs, matching those against resources available, then translating needs into sequenced action jointly with the community. Project team (2) Identifying community capacity – using Social Investigation and Class Analysis (SICA) and/or Capacity and Vulnerability Analysis (CVA) Project team facilitates through focal groups (3) Joint implementation - might include training on use of new materials. Community and external agents
Stage 3: Ensuring Sustainability Community capacity building - to enable them to take care of development needs and be resilient against future disasters. For this, strengthening local institutions is necessary.
Capacity and Vulnerability Analysis (CVA) • To identify appropriate rehabilitation and mitigation responses that not only address physical and material needs of the community, but also organizational and attitudinal. • To ensure that disaster responses strengthen and build on people's capacities • To identify not only the immediate vulnerabilities of the community but also the root causes of people's vulnerability • To evaluate achievements of disaster response measures at the community level
Two elements of CVA • Vulnerabilityassessment: community members analyze the factors that generate their vulnerability. The assessment searches for the deeper root causes. Method: focus group using problem tree • Capacityassessment: community members identify resources and their strengths they use to deal with and respond to crisis. Capacities refer here to people’s abilities to recover after the impact of disasters and periods of stress. Method: stakeholder analysis/SWOT analysis
Private sector involvement Employers: • Assist employees in trauma support and provide them with financial support to help cover short-term costs (such as funerals, subsistence and replacing lost homes. Companies • Small businesses supplied by the company might have lost all their stock or business infrastructure and be uninsured. Support could be provided by supplying stock at reduced costs or for free, and provide bridging finance for business to become operational again. • Develop partnership programmes with civil society organisations and with other businesses to support social, health, education and human development – including business projects to improve the basic infrastructure for logistics, communications, power and water.
