Reporting Period: 17 January 2020 – 16 January 2021 (12 months)
Project Title:
Capacity Building Project for the Establishment and Sustainable Management of a Multi sector
Platform for Disaster Management in Bangladesh
Implemented by:
Community Initiative Society (CIS) in collaboration with Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster
Management (A-PAD)
Grant Assistance for
Japanese NGO Project funded by MoFA
BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT:
Bangladesh is a developing country with the highest population density with the most dynamic,
resourceful, and disaster-prone areas in the world. The total area of Bangladesh is about 147000
km² with a population of 160 million (1088 people per km²). It is situated in Southern Asia.
For this geographical location, this country is affected by many types of disasters such as
Cyclones, Tornados, Floods, River Bank Erosions, Droughts, Arsenic Contaminations,
Earthquakes, Infrastructure collapses, Salinity Intrusions, Storm Surges, Fires, and Tsunamis.
Very often a huge number of damages (e.g. human life, assets, and economy) are occurring for
several kinds of disaster. Many experts are mentioning that these calamities are happening very
often due to Climate Changes and Unplanned Urbanization and Industrialization.
Bangladesh has a long history of natural disasters. Between 1980 and 2008, it experienced 219
natural disasters. The geographical location, land characteristics, multiplicity of rivers, and the
monsoon climate render Bangladesh highly vulnerable to natural hazards. The coastal
morphology of Bangladesh influences the impact of natural hazards on the area. Cyclones and
floods particularly caused massive damages over those years, where the combination occurred
in 1970, 1991, 2007, and 2009 and killed 364,000, 136,000, 3,363, and 190 respectively.
Since the novel Coronavirus emerged in 2019, it has reached a global scale affecting all walks
of life. The COVID-19 has forced countries around the world to adopt drastic measures such
as flight bans, mandatory lockdowns, and social distancing to prevent the further spread of the
pandemic. Bangladesh is a – country and most of the people live under the poverty level. To
change their economic condition people work in different countries abroad, Saudi Arabia, Italy,
France, United Arab Emirates, China, Japan, etc. After the effects of COVID-19, most of the
people came back to Bangladesh for safety and security purposes. For that reason, most of the
initial COVID-19 patients were those who came from abroad; much through them the disease
spread through Bangladesh and was confirmed as of March 2020.
Historically, NGOs and other informal support mechanisms in the country also have made
significant contributions during and after disaster recovery. Despite the presence of some
strength, such as long experience in disaster response and recovery, the people’s resilience, and
donor support, the current management strategies suffer from a host of policy and institutional
weaknesses. Overlapping responsibilities of Disaster Management Committee (DMC)
members is a major hindrance to proper functioning. Most prominent gap is the absence of a
functioning partnership among the stakeholders within these formal set-ups. Though there is
an established frame work for collaboration between the GoB and NGOs, in reality due to lack
of collaboration and trust it is not working properly. There is lack of Educational and Research
Programs in the field of DM and DRR. More over lack of training on DRR issues is a major
concern and obstacle in progress towards an effective DM system.
1. Developing country like Bangladesh is disproportionately affected disaster because of
its limited resource, weak infrastructure, and lack of disaster preparedness plan;
2. Disasters also have pervasive impacts on the society and have the potential not only to
destabilize the economy, but also the access to education, livelihood opportunities, food
security, housing and service provision;
3. Key stakeholders lack sufficient knowledge of and thus capacity for disaster response
and severe damage thus is anticipated especially in public health including infectious
diseases, in the event of natural disasters;
4. No system for multi-sectoral disaster response exists at the national and divisional levels
and it prevents disaster response from being carried out sufficiently and effectively.
Especially, it causes severe secondary damages in public health such as spread of
infectious diseases.
Because of the extreme vulnerability of the people in general and of the economy to natural
disasters, various regimes of the government of Bangladesh have developed an institutional
infrastructure to deal with natural hazards and their potential losses. Traditionally, the disaster
management approach in the country has been to respond to disaster in the aftermath of the
events. Nonetheless, the ever-increasing human and economic costs have raised serious
questions about such approaches. Also, flood-disaster management has relied heavily on
structural engineering and post-flood relief operations. Overall, such a post-facto approach has
failed to effectively deal with the problems of disaster loss. In this scenario, there are some
NGOs, private organizations and government agencies are doing some short-term health care
service and disaster management programme, which are not good enough for the vulnerable
communities. Community Initiative Society (CIS) is implementing community based
sustainable emergency disaster response in nationally and internationally.
Therefore, this project, in addition we have also selected Dhaka, Chattagram, Rajshahi, Barisal,
Khulna, Rangpur and Sylhet division, where are major disasters such as floods, industrial fire,
Earthquake, building collapse, cyclone, tornado, droughts and landslides frequently occur. We
aim to establish emergency health care service during disaster and as well as integrated disaster
management by establishing multi-sectoral platform and horizontal collaboration with
community organizations, Private Sectors, NGOs, Local Government bodies and GOB, who
provide the health service to the local community. This will strengthen the stakeholders and
local communities in disaster management and emergency health care service during disaster.
PROJECT GOAL:
Establishment of Sustainable Disaster Management Network to Co-Ordinate Private Sector,
Civil Society and Local Government As Well As to Buildup Capacity in disaster-prone areas
of Bangladesh.
OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT:
1. To establish emergency disaster management co-ordination centers in targeted disasterprone areas of Bangladesh.
2. To establish a Disaster Reduction Network amongst various stakeholders together
knowledge and different information on disaster management.
3. To strengthen the A-PAD Bangladesh National Platform as a foundation of national
collaboration among the networking members.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED:
CIS in collaboration with A-PAD MO are implementing a disaster preparedness and
management project titled “Capacity Building Project for The Establishment and
Sustainable Management of a Multi-Sector Platform for Disaster Management in
Bangladesh”. This project is supported by Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Project funded
by MoFA. After finalize the project, CIS and A-PAD MO made an MOU sign an MOU and
made an activity plan to implement the project for one year. According to the plan CIS and APAD Bangladesh have been implementing the following activates.
ACTIVITIES:
1. ESTABLISHING EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATION CENTER
IN DISASTER PRONE AREAS OF BANGLADESH:
CIS established emergency disaster management coordination centers in Dhaka Chattagram,
Rajshahi, Khulna, Barishal, Sylhet and Rangpur division. Coordination centers used as
resource centers for experience sharing, conducting strategic planning meetings, training,
workshop, awareness, and emergency health and hygiene education center. The meetings held
in every center among different organizations like NGOs, Private Organizations, political
humanitarian leaders, and local business organizations. To organize the meetings the local
office staff communicate with various stakeholders and conduct the meeting.
1-1 ESTABLISHMENT OF EMERGENCY DISASTER MANAGEMENT COORDINATION CENTER:
CIS in collaboration with A-PAD will continue the established 7 Emergency Disaster
Management Coordination Centers in Dhaka, Chattagram, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barishal, Sylhet
and Rangpur division. Total 33,687 local communities have been benefited from the
coordination centers from the 7 divisional areas. The organization, which joins in the network,
uses this center for co-ordination purposes. Emergency health care and emergency awareness
program from this center also provided.
Dhaka: Total Beneficiaries- 5033 local communities
Chattagram: Total Beneficiaries-4748 local communities
Rajshahi: Total Beneficiaries- 4650 local communities
Khulna: Total Beneficiaries- 4553 local communities
Barishal: Total Beneficiaries- 4595 local communities
Sylhet: Total Beneficiaries- 5243 local communities
Rangpur: Total Beneficiaries- 4865 local communities
1-2 COVID-19 AWARENESS PROGRAM IN 7 DIVISIONAL AREAS:
On this awareness program CIS focused on the hand washing and basic hygiene so that the
community protect themselves from spreading coronavirus. Total 1582 participants from the
local community had joined the awareness programs at 7 divisions. The programs was
organized by maintaining social distancing and safety precaution during the pandemic
situation.
Annex 1: COVID-19 awareness program report
1.3 ESTABLISH QUALITY LAB FACILITIES TO IDENTIFY THE COVID-19
CASES:
CIS in collaboration with A-PAD will established lab facilities to identify the COVID-19
cases in Dhaka division. This lab helped to identify the cases of COVID-19 and isolate them
from others so that the infected becoming less and get the number of COVID-19 cases.
Annex 2: COVID-19 case report
2. ESTABLISH A NETWORK AMONG NPF MEMBERS AND STRENGTHEN APAD BANGLADESH NATIONAL PLATFORM:
To sustain and function all the mechanisms properly A-PAD Bangladesh increase its strength
through conducting training programs by engaging the private organizations and NGOs.
2.1 SELF-ASSESSMENT OF NETWORKING MEMBER ORGANIZATION:
Self-assessment did during the strategic planning meeting among the networking partners in
all 7 divisions. The survey conducted self-assessment to identify strengths, weaknesses, best
practices of past years, strategic plan, resource stability and organizational continuity, roles,
responsibilities, capacities, and interests of each organization. Summarizing all the resources
in the list and will provide goods and services according to the list in disaster time. Main
objective of this assessment is to provide humanitarian assistance for disaster risk reduction.
The need for better preparedness at the country level – national, regional and local and at the
international level has been acknowledged by a number of recent initiatives and projects.
Reviewing the current approach to humanitarian response, includes continuous support to build
capacities for preparedness. As such, humanitarian organizations undertake working with
national governments and civil society on preparedness programmes in order to strengthen
resilience and enhance response capacities
Annex 3: Self-Assessment report
2.2 STRATEGIC PLANNING NETWORK MEETING:
CIS and A-PAD Bangladesh conducted strategic planning networking meeting at 5 villages in
seven divisions. 500 participants had joined the strategic planning network meeting in each
divisions total 3,500 participants had joined the planning meeting. Participants of the strategic
planning meetings were local community, community leader, GOVT. officials and, NGOs.
Natural disaster in Bangladesh is the greatest risk for the life, wealth, health and environment. In fact
the whole process is the development of the country vulnerable to the natural disaster risk of the country.
The strategy for the certain periods is aiming to coordinate the work of actors at the local level,
Government, private organizations and the stakeholders.
Objectives of the strategic planning meeting:
1. Integration of risk reduction in development policies and plans;
2. Strengthening of risk management capacities;
3. Creation of safe and resilient communities from disasters;
Outcome of the strategic planning meeting:
At the strategic planning meeting CIS and A-PAD Bangladesh made that plan with different
sectors so that it will be helped in future to take action on next disaster.
4. Disaster Management Plan were prepared by the participants were made with the
Community, which is validated by the community consultation session open for
community members.
5. Increased Awareness among the community relating to disasters.
2.3 NETWORKING PARTNERS DRR TRAINING:
CIS in collaboration with A-PAD conducted 2 days training program at 7 divisions. Total 840
participants had joined at networking partner DRR training. At that training workshops 2
organizations attended from each divisions. At networking partner training it was discussed
about the disaster mitigation which measure to be taken before and after disaster. The main
objective of this training workshop was to improve the capacity on disaster response such as flood,
river erosion, cyclone, drought, earthquake and thunderstorm. To introduce disaster management
and disaster Risk of disaster prone areas of Bangladesh. After the trainings participants were
familiarized with disaster management terminologies and concepts. In addition this section also
covers history and disaster Risk profile of different context and linkages of disasters to
development. The basic concepts of disaster management including impact of disasters,
vulnerabilities, prevention, mitigation and the various disaster classifications were covered. For
maintaining an understanding of disaster risks, gathering and analyzing data related to vulnerabilities,
exposure and hazards is necessary for conducting risk assessments, prioritizing investments and for
improving the capacity to issue timely and appropriate early warnings.
2.4 INCREASE NPF MEMBERS AND MAINTAIN PARTNERSHIP WITH
NETWORK MEMBER ORGANIZATION:
A-PAD Bangladesh is working at 7 divisions with different NGOs whose will work
collaboratively during and after disasters. A-PAD Bangladesh signed MOU with 12
organizations to increase NPF members and maintain partnership with the member
organizations. At present A-PAD Bangladesh NPF members is 40.
2.5 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON DRR:
Community Initiative Society (CIS) and Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management (A-PAD) are
jointly implementing a project on “Capacity Building Project for the Establishment and
Sustainable Management of a Multi-sector Platform for Disaster Management in Bangladesh”.
The goal of the Symposium is “To build up a partnership between two leading disaster
management organizations CIS and A-PAD are in a strong position to tap and establish Multisector Platform in this region.” These both are collaboratively organizing an International Symposium
on “Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Sustainable Development” in connection with the
project, which will take place in Dhaka. This symposium will help to ensure comprehensive
participation and support of NGOs, private organizations, business groups, and the Government for
establishing a multi-sectorial platform. The main Agenda of the symposium is to establish a Disaster
Risk Reduction Network among various stakeholders, gathering knowledge, sharing information and
experiences on disaster management strategies. The symposium will be conducted by following all
COVID-19 safety measures instructed by the Government of Bangladesh.
Objectives of the Symposium:
Interactive networking and knowledge-sharing platform at the international level to
identify and discuss the current disaster issues in a different context
To establish a Disaster Risk Reduction Network among various stakeholders, gathering
knowledge and sharing information on disaster management strategies
To share experiences, good practices, lessons learned challenges, and solutions among
National Platforms (international and local) on multi-sectorial collaboration,
strengthening community resiliency, and effective humanitarian response.
Annex 5: International Symposium on DRR Report
3.1 CONDUCT TRAINING WORKSHOP TO HUMANITARIAN, COMMUNITY
LEVEL AT HOUSEHOLD AND SCHOOL BASED:
3.1 A) WORKSHOP ON DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND EMERGENCY HEALTH
PROGRAM FOR LOCAL COMMUNITY, COMMUNITY LEADERS AND LOCAL
NGO AND PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS PERSONNEL:
Awareness and networking development training workshop on disaster management and
emergency health program conducted in 7 divisions. 3 days training programs were held in 7
divisional areas. Total 700 participants had joined to the training workshops. To provide
information, tools, and instruments that will increase the overall awareness and understanding
of Disaster Risk Management in general and the topics of risk reduction. At the end of each
session, there is scope to assess the learning of the participants from the session. Three days
training workshop on Natural Disaster Management and Health management was organized.
The training workshop was attended by Govt. and non-Govt. Employees and people of different
professions. The training includes training on Disaster Management and Emergency Health
providers. Considering the situation of Covid-19, social distance was maintained and the
program was conducted in accordance with the instructions of the Department of Health. At
that training workshops it was discussed about disaster preparedness and what was the
responsibilities to the health providers during the disaster. As it was focusing both disaster
management and health sectors so that at the training workshops it was focused on COVID-19
and its side effect and affect. People who are recovering from COVID-19 what side effect they
are facing and what measures can be taken for get out from that situations.
3.1 B) LOCAL NGO EMERGENCY HEALTH PROVIDERS TRAINING:
At present Bangladesh health providers are recognized and well known globally and people
have much interest on this sectors. The NGOs are focusing application and adaptation of
community based approaches and partnership between Government and Non-Government
Organizations. Total 5 days training program organized in 7 divisions Dhaka, Chattagram,
Rajshahi, Khulna, Barishal, Sylhet and Rangpur. On that training beneficiaries are the Local
NGO Emergency Health Providers who will step first during disaster. The training was
conducted according to the training manual. NGO Emergency Health providers play an
important role during disaster because any kind of disaster Emergency health providers and
NGO workers came first. Total 175 participants has benefited from these training workshops.
Disasters have wide implications to social and economic development of a country due to their
potentially widespread impacts, but also require management to prevent risk, mitigate and
manage potential impact. Bangladesh is facing different types of disaster which are natural and
manmade. Among them are fire, earth quake, water logging, lack of safe drinking water,
thunder lighting etc. Every year people are suffering and died by these disasters. For any kind
of disaster emergency health providers play important role to provide service to the affected
people. At that training workshop it was discussed and did workshop on emergency response.
As it is the monsoon period, people need more awareness to protect themselves from that kind
of disasters. Besides the coastal zone where Cyclone is the major factor. Training workshop for
local NGO emergency health provider was held at the cyclone affected that area. At that
training workshop A-PAD Bangladesh discussed about post cyclone activities. Also it was
discussed about the nutrition capacity for the disaster affected people and also discussed about
the basic hygiene for preventing from water borne diseases.
3.2 SEMINAR FOR DEVELOPING PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
INNOVATION SUCCESS MODELS:
Climate change is likely to be perceived through experience of extreme weather events.
Therefore, response to climate change will perhaps happen through adaptation to climate
hazards Important to characterize the institutional mechanisms and structures in place for
responding to natural and climate-related disasters. A-PAD Bangladesh conducted public
private partnership seminar at 7 divisions. Total 700 participants were presented at the
seminars. Public-private partnerships can enhance emergency prevention, preparedness,
mitigation, response, and recovery efforts through cross-sector education, technical assistance,
training, and interdependency exercises. Public and private sector areas of concern can
supplement individual and joint emergency preparedness efforts by improving partners’
understanding of vulnerabilities, threats, and capabilities. Public and private sector partners can
learn from each other’s experiences in the prevention, planning, mitigation, response, and
recovery phases. Sharing best practices improves response efforts by preventing repeated
mistakes and identifying avenues for better cooperation. At the seminars GOVT. officers had
joined and focused on the upcoming disaster events in Bangladesh. At that seminars it was
discussed about what preparation can be taken for the early disaster so that it will help to reduce
loss of lives. Every year many fisherman fall in storm because of unaware about the early
warning systems. Another issues was the lack of safe drinking water in during summer and
rainy session. During summer season safe drinking water level go down so that it becoming
tough to collect safe drinking water. It would not be possible to make RSF because the river
water are excessive salinity. At that seminar it was discussed if it would be possible to make
Rain Water Harvesting it will help the community to solve the safe drinking water issue. Both
the public and private sectors’ emergency prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery
efforts benefit by extending training on preparedness to private sector employees. The public
sector gains a better-informed and prepared workforce that is ready to respond both at private
sector facilities and within the community at large. Employee training also helps to raise
awareness within a private sector organization of emergency plans and procedures, potentially
reducing the impact of incidents on personnel, assets, and operations.
CHALLENGES:
o The whole world is going through the pandemic situation. Sometimes it is tough to maintain
social distancing during training and community meeting because people are still unaware
about COVID-19;
o During COVID-19 GOVT. restricted public gathering;
o It was tough to maintain parallel disaster management. Ex. During cyclone and COVID-19
it was challenging to manage the shelters.
