2. Assessment checklist

Once a disaster has occurred and CARE is responding, DRR should be incorporated as a cross-cutting issue in the emergency strategy. This means ensuring the emergency response identifies and maximises opportunities to mitigate the impacts of the disaster, build capacities and reduce vulnerabilities to future emergencies.

Risk assessment should be incorporated even in the initial rapid needs assessment. This helps ensure that disaster risk reduction is successfully incorporated in the emergency response plan, in the different thematic sectors of intervention, and as an explicit thematic area of the response when indicated by the assessments.

Checklist

Situational analysis

Conduct an analysis of the hazards that contributed to the occurrence of the disaster.

• What were the hazards that contributed to the disaster?  What other hazards may occur in the disaster-affected communities?
• What is the likely frequency and severity of these hazards striking in the future?  What are the likely effects of these hazards on people and communities?
• How can the likelihood and severity be mitigated?

Vulnerability analysis

Conduct an analysis of the vulnerabilities of the affected people and communities to these hazards, preferably group-specific. Distinctions should be made between, among others, socio-cultural, economic, political, environmental, physical and ecological factors.

• How is the emergency response mitigating the impact of the disaster and limiting further vulnerability?
• What are the key vulnerabilities that should be addressed or can be avoided through strategic rehabilitation decisions? How can the emergency response ‘build back better’?
• Is the emergency response creating new vulnerabilities and exacerbating existing ones? How can these be avoided?

Capacity analysis

Analyse the capacities of the affected people and communities to cope with these hazards. This assessment could focus on (consistent with the sustainable livelihood approach) human assets, physical assets, natural assets, social assets, political assets and financial assets.

• What are the capacities of the community to withstand the disaster?
• How can the emergency response strengthen these capacities?

Project planning and management

Explicitly address DRR in programme planning and management throughout the programme cycle, based on the above analysis of the strategic opportunities and risks associated with CARE’s response to the disaster.

• Strategically consider the situational/capacity/vulnerability analysis to ensure CARE’s emergency response maximises positive changes, and avoids reinforcing or reinstating disaster risks.
• What specific DRR objectives and indicators can be included in programme design?
• What methods can be used to evaluate the impact of the project on disaster risks, within and outside the affected communities?