Case Study

Department for International Development: support to the development and integration of a corporate disaster risk reduction policy; March 2005 to February 2007

During an almost 12 month period from March 2005, Aguaconsult provided technical input and advisory services to DFID’s disaster risk reduction team in the development of a dedicated policy. This included a broad process of consultation across DFID departments and development partners, as well as a review of good practice and lesson learning from practitioner organisations. The resulting document was launched in March 2006 and has been widely recognised as a state-of-the-art policy position on disaster risk reduction and is a key step towards meeting the commitments of the Hyogo Framework for Action; the policy document is available here: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/disaster-risk-reduction-policy.pdf.

Following the successful launch of this policy the company was approached to develop a pilot training programme as part of the policy implementation plan. This training is intended to provide orientation to DFID country and regional office staff about the disaster risk reduction policy, and to generate awareness-raising more broadly regarding the importance of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into development processes. The training was piloted in the Caribbean region in January 2007 and modified on the basis of feedback inputs of DFID and partner staff. The DFID disaster risk reduction team then expanded a programme of training to other country and regional offices throughout the course of 2007.