Afghanistan’s rural communities have low resilience to hazards and climate change, which is further exacerbated by conflict, poverty and environmental degradation. Consequently, each year approximately 250,000 people are affected by hazards such as droughts, floods, landslides, avalanches, earthquakes and extreme weather events.
Besides the provision of emergency aid to address urgent humanitarian needs, preparatory actions taken before hazards strike reduce the negative impacts of such hazards on lives and livelihoods. Such actions – known as disaster risk reduction – should be based on participatory, community-based planning that take into account the vulnerabilities and priorities of such communities in the face of hazards and climate change.
This Community-Based Disaster Preparedness toolkit was developed by UN Environment and the Afghanistan Resilience Consortium to equip development practitioners, community leaders, and decision-makers with a framework for participatory planning with local communities for practical actions to minimise the threats and impacts of hazards and climate change.
The processes followed in this Community-Based Disaster Preparedness toolkit are designed to build on the information gathered using the Hazard and Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment toolkit for comprehensive action to enhance adaptive capacity at the local level.
