Disaster Risk Reduction Tools and Resources
The following are a selection of the most useful and relevant tools related to DRR from the INEE Minimum Standards Toolkit and Resource Database, which have been developed in response to a growing need for clear, practical tools to guide humanitarian aid workers, government officials and educationalists in implementing the INEE Minimum Standards. These tools and resources can help you mainstream preparedness and disaster risk reduction into programmes and policies. For more information on the linkages between the INEE Minimum Standards and DRR, please Click Here.
Tools
International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (ISDR) The Americas:
UNICEF / EC project to recover and systematize experiences and reproduce practices and instruments regarding risk management in the field of education (Includes a kids corner with activities, games and materials).
- English
- Spanish
- Spanish toolkit: Se encuentra disponible el Toolkit de educación elaborado en el marco del proyecto DIPECHO “Fortalecimiento de la Gestión Local del Riesgo en el Sector Educativo en Centroamérica” implementado por UNICEF, La Comisión Educativa y Cultural Centroamericana y el UNISDR.
Emergency Preparedness: Steps in Preparedness Planning and Checklist for National Preparedness Plans (Save the Children, 2003)
UNICEF Emergency Preparedness Checklist (UNICEF, 2006)
Preparedness Plan Monitoring Tool (UNICEF, 2006)
The ‘immediately, sooner, later’ Matrix of Response (within: The role of education in protecting children in conflict by Susan Nicolai and Carl Triplehorn, Humanitarian Practice Network Paper, 2003)
Child-Focused Disaster Risk Reduction (Training Module 6: Community Disaster Risk Reduction Implementation, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, 2007)
Family Disaster Plan (Marla Petal, INEE Training Review for DRR)
Basic Content for Disaster Risk Reduction Education (Marla Petal, INEE Training Review for DRR)
Strategies and Tools for Environmental Education (UNESCO IIEP, 2006)
Examples of Educational Strategies to Promote Environmental Health (UNESCO, 2004)
Pre-Crisis Secondary Data for Emergency Preparedness (UNICEF, 2006)
Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School: What Can Be Done (ISDR, 2006-2007)
Word into Actions: A Guide for Implementing the Hyogo Framework (ISDR, 2007)
Ahmedabad Action Agenda for School Safety (International Conference on School Safety, 2007)
Resources
Rwanda Schools Infrastructure Standards (Ministry of Education, 2009)
Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (ISDR, 2005)
Protecting persons affected by natural disasters: IASC operational guidelines on human rights and natural disasters (UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2006)
Working with vulnerable communities to assess and reduce disaster risk (ODI, 2007)
Lessons for life: Building a culture of safety and resilience to disasters through schools (ActionAid International, 2006)
Let Our Children Teach Us! (ISDR, 2006)
Teacher's Guide to Earthquake Education (available in French, Chinese, and Russian) (Teachers Without Borders, 2009) TWB's Teacher's Guide to Earthquake Education is designed to promote earthquake awareness to teachers, students, and school administrators. The guide includes six science activities describing physical processes related to earthquakes, five activities on earthquake hazards and mitigation strategies, and a codification art/literacy project.
Towards a Culture of Prevention: Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School (ISDR, 2007)
Linkages between the INEE Minimum Standards and Disaster Risk Reduction (INEE, 2007)
Tools for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (ProVention Consortium, 2007)
Planning
School Construction in Developing Countries: What do we know? (Serge Theunynck, 2002). This paper discusses school construction using the cost, and attempts to reduce it, as the unifying thread.
Let our Children Teach Us! A Review of the Role of Education and Knowledge in Risk Reduction (Ben Wisner, 2006). This review examines good practices to reduce disaster risk through education, knowledge and innovation (including efforts to protect schools from extreme natural events)
Schools and Infrastructure Standards (Rwanda Ministry of Education, 2009). This document outlines the infrastructure standards which are expected to be meet by all Primary and Tronc Community schools in the Republic of Rwanda. Through this document the Ministry of Education of Rwanda sets out clearly the level of acceptability as a standard and gives guidance on how to achieve them. The document includes has guidelines that highlight accessibility issues for students with different types of disabilities as well as students with specific religious needs.
Building Guides
Construction Design, Building Standards and Site Selection, Tools for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction- A Guidance Note (ProVention Consortium Secretariat, 2007). Provides guidance for analysing the potential threat posed by poor construction and inappropriate land use in hazard-prone areas.
Handbook on Good Building Design and Construction: Aceh and Nias Islands (UNDP, ISDR, 2007).Provides simple information to house owners, house designers and builders, and building monitors to teach principles of good design and good construction in a natural hazard prone area.
Protection of educational building against earthquakes: a manual for designers and builders (Kumar Bothara, Jitendra from National Society for Earthquake Technology, 2002) (NSET) Nepal and Guragain, Ramesh and Dixit, Amod. The manual is primarily meant for the technical persons engaged in the design, construction and protection of educational buildings against earthquakes.
Design Guide for School Safety against Earthquakes, Floods, and High Winds (FEMA, 2004).
Accessibility for Students with Disabilities
Design for All (World Bank, 2008).
Education for All: Building the Schools (Serge Theunynck , 2003).
Education for All: The Cost of Accessibility (Edward Steinfeld, 2005)
Accessibility for the Disabled: A Design Manual for a Barrier Free Environment (Lebanese Company for the Development and Reconstruction District and UNESC).
Water and Sanitation for Disabled People and Other Vulnerable Groups(Hazel Jones and Bob Reed).
International Best Practices in Universal Design: A Global Review
Retrofitting
Case Studies of Seismic Non-Structural Retrofitting in School Facilities (Educational Facilities Research Center, National Institute for Educational Policy Research 2005) This document is intended for local authorities that establish schools, and for school teachers and staff. It introduces examples of seismic retrofitting on nonstructural members that could be identified and implemented through daily inspections.
Seismic Retrofitting Quick Reference: School Facilities that Withstand Earthquakes, Examples of Seismic Retrofitting (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan , 2006).
Techniques for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings (FEMA, 2006).
Community Involvement
Community based Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) in Central AmericaThis set of manuals is a collaborative effort between IFRC, OAS, PAHO and UNICEF, supported by ProVention, aimed at promoting community-based disaster risk reduction activities in the following fields:
- Mantenimeinto Communatario de Escuelas (School Maintenance)
- Manejo de Albergues Temporales (Natural hazards and School Shelter)
Child-Led Disaster Risk Reduction: A Practical Guide(Save the Children – Lynne Benson and John Bugge).This practical guide is aimed at practitioners working with children to provide them with examples and ideas to help them enable children to lead the process of disaster risk reduction.
A Guide to Community Based DRR in Central Asia (ISDR)
Community-Based Disaster Risk Management: A Field Practitioner’s Guide(Imelda Abarquez and Zubair Murshed).
Indigenous Knowledge
Preventing Pancake Collapses: Lessons from Earthquake Resistant Traditional Construction for Modern Buildings and Reinforced Concrete ( Randolf Langenbach, 2005).This paper will explore the specifics of what can be learned from these historical construction practices, by describing the author’s concept for “Armature Crosswalls,” a concept based on Turkish and Kashmiri traditional construction adapted for reinforced concrete infill-wall construction.
Indigenous Knowledge for Disaster Risk Reduction: Good Practices and Lessons Learned from Experiences in the Asia-Pacific Region(ISDR, 2008).“Aims to build awareness for indigenous knowledge as an effective tool for reducing risk from natural disasters- by improving the understanding of indigenous knowledge and providing concrete examples of how it can be successfully be used..”
Hazard Mapping
Community Capacity Building through the Development of Community Based Hazard Mapping(Hiroyuki Watabe, Etsuko Tsunozaki, and Makoto Ikeda).
Landslide Hazard Zonation Mapping
Vulnerability Assessment
Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation of School Buildings (K-12) (Fredrick Krimgold, David Hattis, Melvyn Green).This manual provides school administrators with the information necessary to assess the seismic vulnerability of their buildings, and to implement a program of incremental seismic rehabilitation for those buildings.
Natural hazards:
Handbook on Design and Construction of Housing for Flood Prone Areas of Bangladesh(ADPC).
Flooding and Schools (National Clearing House for Educational Facilities).
Inundaciones (Flood Awareness)
Wildfires and Schools(National Clearing House for Educational Facilities).
DRR in School Curriculum
Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction into School Curriculum: Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction into Education (ADPC).Integrating DRR into school curriculum should therefore be an absolute priority for public authorities of every country, and many Regional Consultative Committee members have either already integrated DRR into the school curriculum or are in process of completing the integration, or are initiating. This document is thought to provide RCC's main guidelines to implement this ongoing process.
Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School(UNISDR, 2006-2007). Policy Campaign document that describes techniques to promote the integration of disaster risk education in school curricula in countries vulnerable to natural hazards and the safe construction and retrofitting of school buildings to withstand natural hazards
Resource Lists
School Vulnerability Reduction Resource Page
Prevention Web Library resources of over 1300 documents around DRR
Asian Disaster Preparedness Center
Asian Disaster Reduction Center:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery Resource Library
Emergency Education Program at Teachers Without Borders This program works with teachers in advance of emergencies to identify and appropriately use necessary services and resources with the goal of preparing them for appropriate action during and after an emergency. The program’s primary activities are educational logistics support, content development, teacher training and professional development, and the establishment of partnerships dedicated to physical and emotional safety of school communities.
The Development Bookshop operated by Practical Action Publishing This website has a wide selection of books on in different development topics including construction, water and sanitation, disaster and emergencies etc.
Prevention web disaster reduction educational materials
Links
The Coalition for Global School Safety and Disaster Prevention Education (COGSS & DPE)
The Disaster Risk Reduction Teacher's Network
The Inter-Agency Library on Disaster Reduction for the ISDR
Global Network of NGOs for Disaster Risk Reduction (ISDR)
Online Resources for disaster risk education and safer school (ISDR)
What's the Plan Stan (initiative developed in New Zealand to teach children about disaster preparedness & an educational tool for teachers)
Check out this Initiative in Disaster Risk Reduction!
The Disaster Management Department of the Office of National Security in Sierra Leone is organizing for the second time this year, an initiative on school safety that involves 6 schools. Community leaders such as firefighters and mayors are invited to the participating schools to speak to students about topics such as fire safety, earthquakes and environmental protection. The students are then invited to speak as guests on the radio, where they talk about disaster prevention in their country and are then quizzed on the radio about their knowledge of disaster risk reduction. At the end of the cycle, students are quizzed and can win prizes for their schools such as radios or books. Entire communities have benefited from this initiative and the knowledge taught to students about disaster risk reduction.
