The Community Based Disaster Preparedness Programme used a pioneering approach of community-based disaster risk reduction, by mobilizing communities to become involved, equipping cyclone shelters and building people’s capacity to respond to a cyclone. The programme was run between 1996 and 2002 by the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS), with the technical and financial support of the German Red Cross. It focused on communities living within a 1.5km radius around 30 cyclone shelters (which had been built following the 1991 cyclone) in five subdistricts of Cox’s Bazar: Sadar, Moiscal, Kutubdia, Teknaf and Chakaria.

The impact evaluation was carried out in October 2009 by the German Red Cross, together with BDRCS, to assess the extent to which communities maintained disaster risk reduction activities some years on. The eight-member evaluation team visited ten of the 30 cyclone shelters and communities originally involved and carried out through interviews,
group discussions and physical observations.

Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and German Red Cross, 2009.

Online version of case study
http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Publications/disasters/reducing_risks/194300-Empowering-communities-to-prepare-for-cyclones.pdf