Tearfund is committed to bringing about a reduction in the level of death and suffering from natural and man-made disaster events through a strategy that combines changes at the community level with changes to national and international policies and practice. This commitment is backed by extensive experience in public policy work with donors and institutions, alongside learning from practise with disaster prone communities. Tearfund was actively involved in, and successfully influenced the outcomes of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction at Kobe, January 2005, and later developed a tool for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into institutional policy and practice. Several donor organisations are currently using this tool to develop their mainstreaming strategies.
In 2005, Tearfund began to implement a 5 year global DRR project funded by DFID focusing on four countries: Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan and Malawi. The aim of this project is to address both the immediate and the underlying causes of people’s vulnerability to disasters. During the lifespan of the project Tearfund will actively explore the practical linkages for communities between climate change adaptation and DRR. Advocacy will play an important part in influencing government policies. Increasing community awareness of hazards and building their capacity will enable them to prepare for, respond to and recover from prevailing hazards. The result will be stronger, more resilient communities for the future.
For further details on this project and this webpage, please contact angela.mugore@tearfund.org