Research study in urban disaster risk reduction and community resilience programming (Asia Pacific)

Background

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) world disaster report 2010 (WDR) identifies three major trends that are driving the urbanization of disasters: climate change, population growth and poorly planned urbanization. The impacts of climate change will be distributed unevenly among urban populations, with low-income groups being particularly vulnerable due to their greater exposure to hazards and their lower levels of adaptive capacity.

Cities that are unable to deal with the many hazards and risks of today will be unable to deal with the new climate challenges of the future and therefore, the focus on building resilience to cope with uncertainty is becoming more important in protecting the lives and livelihoods of urban residents. It is predicted that the fastest rates of urbanization will take place in China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. With this historically unprecedented rate of urbanization, cities in Southeast and East Asia will absorb 2 million new urban residents every month and are projected to triple their built-up areas in the coming two decades. Exposure to various hazards is increasing and will translate into heavy loss of life and property, unless proactive measures are mainstreamed into urban planning processes. These losses are particularly high in densely populated peri-urban and informal settlements, whose residents live on marginal lands in poorly constructed shelters and lack the financial resources to cope with the loss of property.

Within this background, IFRC APDMU plans to conduct an urban sector research study that will help determine the Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) niche in urban DRR and response, identify programmatic direction and possible strategic partners to engage, determine overall RCRC approach to urban community resilience programming which includes participatory approaches and possible challenges working in urban environments. This information will help the Asia Pacific RCRC national societies, IFRC- AP Zone, regions and countries to position better in urban DRR sector and engage in urban community resilience activities.

IFRC APDMU seeks the services of a suitable consultant to undertake this assignment and help IFRC and the RCRC national societies to determine strategies and directions to engage in community resilience programming in the urban sector.

Purpose and specific objectives

The overall purpose of the consultancy is to research and advice IFRC on possible strategies, programmatic directions and overall urban community resilience programming aspects in urban areas in the Asia Pacific looking at preparedness, mitigation, prevention, response, early recovery and taking climate change aspects in to consideration across all programming areas.

The two inter-linked specific objectives of the study are as follows:

1. Conduct a desk study to collect relevant RCRC (internal) DRR and response resource materials , review them and identify areas which require adaptation to the urban context. To complement this process, identify and collect relevant external DRR and response
resource materials i.e. additional approaches/tools/methodologies that would be complementary to the existing RCRC resource materials for working in urban environments.

2. To study the operating context particularly related to DRR and disaster response work in urban environments and to develop a guidance document that will help IFRC to determine:

- RCRC niche in urban DRR and response
- suitable programme/project themes for urban areas
- emergency needs assessments and response approaches
- risk assessments
methodologies
- community-based DRR approaches for urban sector
- long term partnerships with local governments and private institutions in the urban sector.

Scope and the methodology

The consultant shall collect resource materials from IFRC/RCRC National Societies and also contact other relevant organizations to review existing resource materials. The field work of the study will be focused on two countries (Indonesia and Vietnam) in Southeast Asia. The consultant will work closely with the respective national societies. IFRC country delegations are to arrange consultation workshops, meetings, interviews with the stakeholders, communities and national societies’ members to collect information.
The consultant will also consult regional organizations such as ADPC, EMI, UN agencies that are involved in urban DRR and disaster response and if needed, visit urban community-based DRR project(s) that have been implemented by one of these organizations in the study countries.

Outputs

The study will produce the following outputs:

- Additional information/materials/tools/methodologies/approaches that should be included in the current RCRC DRR and response materials/tools.
- A report to highlight the areas that need tweaking in the RCRC resource materials to suit the urban context.
- A report that analyses the urban operating context and provides expert guidance that help to determine RCRC niche and programmatic approaches in urban DRR and disaster response operations.
- A workshop to present the study findings, discuss and agree on the final versions of the study report (a draft report (output1 and 2) should be made available at least one week before the final workshop).