Prepared in the midst of a conflict: Community-based disaster preparedness in South-Central Somalia

With funding from the German Government, World Vision Germany and World Vision Somalia have supported 16 communities in Middle Juba in South-Central Somalia in strengthening their disaster preparedness and response capacities.

Over the course of ten months, 35 community trainers were trained in disaster preparedness and response. They then proceeded to training 3,360 community members in 16 communities in Bualle, Sakkow and Salagle thus enabling them to better prepare for and react to disasters. At the same time 16 DRR committees with a total of 150 members were formed and trained to lead "their" community's disaster preparedness and response efforts.

Together, the above mentioned groups developed risk maps, early warning systems and disaster response plans for each of the 16 communities and put them in place. In addition, community and individual first-aid kits were provided to the communities and signboards with warning and disaster preparedness messages were put up all across the project area to continuously remind the communities of the lessons learned in the trainings.

The DRR committees organized "their" communities in their response to the floods that devastated Middle Juba in May 2010, thus not only averting major damage, but also giving the newly trained community members the opportunity to put the acquired knowledge into practice and thus internalize it even more. This also instilled a feeling of responsibility and community, so that it can be expected that other community driven initiatives will follow.

While the project greatly improved the disaster preparedness of the target communities, unfortunately, it could not be concluded as planned, because World Vision was expelled from South-Central Somalia at the beginning of August 2010. Therefore, only about half of the targeted number of people could be trained quite significantly reducing the impact the project could have had.

Nevertheless, at least some of the DRR committees and community trainers seem determined to continue the capacity building and preparation activities even without outside support. Therefore, there is hope that momentum will not be lost and that the achieved results and impact of the intervention will be sustained and maybe even amplified over time.