Districts Level Sharing Meeting in Assam

   

  

 As a partner of Concern Universal, Gramya Vikash Mancha (GVM) organized a districts level sharing meeting at Nalbari districts, Assam in India on 02 November 2010 in GVM conference room. Representative from district administration, disaster management department, several non-government organization, civil society organization and community people are attend in that meeting.

Reported By,
Sabrin Sultana
Project Officer, Training
CU- Bangladesh.

Training on CMDRR and PDRA in Assam

Training course on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) and Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA) in Assam- India:

Concern Universal – Bangladesh organized a 5-day residential training cum workshop on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) and Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA) from 26 – 30 October 2010 in Hotel ALANKAR, Guwahati, Assam, India. Representatives from 5 Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) that is Gramya Vikash Mancha (GVM), Rural Volunteer Centre (RVC), Impulse NGO Network, Morigaon Mahila Mehfil (MMM) & Global Organisation for Life Development (GOLD) joined in that training.

Reported By:

Sabrin Sultana

Project Officer – Training

Concern Universal- Bangladesh.

First Coordination Meeting of the Partner NGOs of West Bengal

Minutes of the Meeting

Date: 02 November 2010

Organised by: Concern Universal, Bangladesh

Venue: Sanlaap, 38B, Mahanirban Road, Kolkata

Participants:  1. M. Mandal  , SLARTC, 2. Sutapa Ghosh, PRISM, 3.Kamalesh Mandal -   RLSK, 4.  Roshan P. Lakra, ABCD,  5.  Aniruddha Dey,PRISM, 6.   Indrani Sinha -   Sanlaap, 7.   Himani Bose, WIF, 8. Debasish Mandal, Bandhan, 9. Md Zahed Nowaz  -CU, B’Desh, 10. Abdul Hamid,CU, B’Desh, 11. Kanika Chakraborty,CU, B’Desh

Meeting started with small notes on backgrounds of the partner organisations.

Discussion:

1. All partner NGOs of West Bengal will join the State Inter Agency Group – West Bengal and help their partner organisations also to become members of the same.
2. The possibility of promoting a CMDRR forum with like-minded organisations needs to be discussed and necessary steps to be taken to materialise it.
3. Co-ordination meetings will be organised at least once in three months where the senior management of the seven organisations will meet. It was proposed that this could be taken as an opportunity for the partners and could be divided into two sessions – first, a technical session, so that members would be benefitted from sharing the experiences and knowledge of others and second, discussion on the agenda of coordination meeting.
4. It was also proposed that there should be similar coordination meetings every month where the field level staffs / second line leaders could meet and exchange their experiences.
5. A Blog – ‘Learning with the community’ has been developed through which members can share their best practice examples to Blog Manager, Shri Nilangshu Gain of PRISM. Blog Link: http://commulearning.blogspot.com/
6. Members will share their plans and activities on a regular basis and develop a habit of sending reply mails.
7. Its time for the group to think about other activities/programmes on DRR and climate change issues, formulate projects, form consortium and try to generate resources/funding.
8. Regarding Sharing Meetings – Responsibilities of the partners to share the project and activities with the government departments at different levels was discussed. Partner NGOs of West Bengal will share with the district and state level government departments, similarly the partner NGOs of Assam and Meghalaya will share at their respective districts and state level government departments. Then there will be sharing at the national level in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Thereafter sharing at the international level will take place within the project period.
9. It was decided that on 09 February 2011 Second Co-ordination meeting would be held at SLARTC office, P/112 Lake Terrace, Kolkata – 700029, Mobile: +919433454183.
10. Agenda for the Sharing Meeting on 03 November 2010 was also discussed, which were as follows:

a)      A small note on the project by CU, B’Desh for setting the perspective

b)      Self Introduction – Name, Organisation, Major Focus/Thrust areas

c)      Project briefing by CU, B’Desh

d)     Accomplishments so far

e)      Open discussion

Finally the participants thanked Indrani di and all members of Sanlaap for hosting the first coordination meeting and thanked the members of Concern Universal, Bangladesh for all their efforts and also for giving us an opportunity to work together. 

Reported by

Dr Aniruddha Dey,

PRISM

Report of the training on (CMDRR) and (PDRA) in Kolkata

          Concern Universal – Bangladesh organized a 5-day residential training on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) and Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA) from 26 – 30 October 2010 in Seva Kendra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Representatives from 7 Non Governmental Organizations(NGO), BANDHAN, Association of Bengal Collaborators for Development (ABCD), Professional Institute for Development & Socio Environmental management (PRISM), Ramakrishna Loka Seva Kendra, SANLAAP,

Socio-legal Aid Research & Training Centre (SLARTC) and Women’s Interlink Foundation (WIF) joined in that workshop. Each day, we started our days with a chorus and a recap presentation of the last day’s issues and wherever we felt fatigue with R=(H x V)/C, Rushi (from WIF) spell bounded us with her enchanting melodies.  It was so colourful and vibrant symposium that both the trainees and facilitators enjoyed a lot. It was also became a zone of cultural exchange between India and Bangladesh.

Day I(26^th October ,2010):

The session was started at 9.00am. Manbendra Mondal, Dr. Aniruddha Dey, Fr. Shyamal were present in the opening session. Kanika chakroborty from CU-B’desh told us about the Concern universal activities in Bangaldesh and their CMDRR and Climate change adaptation project networks in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. All the participants introduced themselves and wrote 2-3lines about their expectations from the training. Trainees were divided in to three groups – Golap, Rajani Gandha and Palash.

Inaugural speech by Mr. Manabendra Mondal

After tea, there were detailed discussion on Disaster Risk reduction(DRR), Evaluation of DRR, Hazards, Vulnerability, Capacity , Risk, Duration, Early warning, forewarning, warning, frequency, period of occurrences, Speed on set disaster, Survivability, CMDRR vs CBDRR etc. After lunch, the subject of discussion was climate change and its effects on us. At the end, we got the interrelation between Disaster and Development.

Day-II (27^th October, 2010):

Always helping !!!

We met Mr. Hamid and got ideas of his activities in Bangladesh. He also told us about the administrative structures of his country. We had a series of discussion on community’s role and our and their (community) perceptions and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA). We did group works with 8 PRA tools in many charts and posters were made. There were discussions (arguments also !!!) on these charts and posters. After tea, there was session on Hazard assessment and also had group works to assess Hazards.  

Day-III (28^th October, 2010):

Saira Banu didi explaining her chart

We had some confusion on assessing Hazards but were cleared after discussing with Mr. Hamid and Kanika Madam. We had detailed discussions on vulnerability , Two fold Capacity Measurement- To cope with Hazards and To cope with Vulnerability. Also learnt that in CMDRR perspective capacities are divided like these: -Hazard prevention and mitigation capacities (capacities addressing hazard) Survivability and community readiness capacities (capacities addressing vulnerability). We had group works on vulnerability and capacity assessments (prevention and mitigation). We displayed our works and it became quite interactive.

Day-IV (29^th October,2010):

Group work going on - Rushi is serious !!

We spend whole day in learning strategy development for CMDRR and to draw appropriate Action plan.  We had lot of group works on it but never felt disgusted. Mr. Tarapada Babu ( from SLARTC) persuaded Fr. Raggi( Heah of Seva Kendra) to arrange a special lunch for us!! Big hands for him !!!

Day-V (30^th October,2010):

Tarapada da you are simply amazing !!!

Fr. Shyamal, Manabendra Nath Mondal, Dr. Aniruddha Dey, Zahed( from CU-B’desh) joined with us. All the groups presented their report on Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA). There was a question answer session on it. After that, we had discussion on documentation, case story writing and sharing. After lunch, we had a serious discussion on Participatory Monitoring Evolution and Learning (PMEL) and connecting CMDRR with the Govt. policies. Mr. Mondal and Dr. Dey also joined with Mr. Hamid. The end session was on self sustainability of CMDRR in the community. At the end of the training representatives of all the 7 organizations submitted their next three months plans on introducing CMDRR.

Details of 7 NGO representatives working on CMDRR in West Bengal

        Click on the link representatives of 7 NGOs in CU-B’desh training, to get the details the representatives of 7 NGOs participated in training cum workshop on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) and Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA) from 26 – 30 October 2010 in Seva Kendra, Kolkata, and was organized by Concern Universal-Bangladesh.

List of 67 partner NGOs

       Click on the link LIST OF 67 partners NGOS to get the list of 67partner Non Governmental Organizations working on “Capacity Strengthening on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) & Climate Change Adaptation” Project – under the technical guidance of Concern Universal – Bangladesh.