Efforts to integrate local and professional/academic understanding are increasingly recognized as valuable in managing risks from natural disasters to socio-economic stressors. Knowledge integration is important because much of professional/academic understanding on risk management provides generalized insights. However, community members have specialized knowledge about their environment, infrastructure, livelihoods, and lifestyles, which allows them to understand what works for their community. They may also rely on local and traditional ways that are developed over generations to manage risk from stressors.
While these are often overlooked, they are of value, and often reveal local wisdom and perceptions in risk management. Developing bottom-up/top-down approaches that integrate local and professional/academic knowledge will enhance risk management processes, and increase community participation, learning and capacity to prepare for change.
- Organize seminars and forums inviting community members to share effective local practices in managing risk. Invite academic institutions and other organizations to attend and reflect on their knowledge and experiences.
- Launch participatory learning programs where community members and other stakeholders come together to document their knowledge on risk management into interactive courses. Incorporate immersive experiences (e.g., field trips, homestays) that would help participants understand the day-to-day practices and culture of the community in managing risks, see Case Study 2.1a on the homestay program in Don Kaew, Thailand.
To document and share knowledge on risk management and community development, the Don Kaew local government in Chiangmai, Thailand co-designed a course with community members and academic institutions. Covering topics from good governance, volunteer development, empowering older persons, to disaster risk management, the course was delivered as a 5-day, 4-night experience.
Participants must stay-in at homes representing the ideology of Don Kaew and embark on field trips. By allowing the local government and community members to co-design and deliver this course, this allows academic institutions and organizations to better appreciate the local practices, knowledge and wisdom derived from the experiences of Don Kaew.
Such learning programs in particular empower community members as it provides a platform for them to teach other community members, imbuing a sense of community as well as regularly maintaining the local knowledge and skills of community members in risk management
- Enhance capabilities of community members by partnering with academia, expert practitioners, and community organizations to learn from their technical knowledge and expertise for managing risk, see Case Study 2.1b. on older villagers in Ban San Klang, Thailand where they collaborated with professionals to rebuild their homes after an earthquake. This partnership should focus on training, capacity building and exchanging of skillsets so community organizations can upskill in risk assessment and management.
- Organizations managing non-profit and community organizations can develop consultancy schemes to match their staff with professionals who possess relevant interests, undertakings, skills, and knowledge
A joint coalition between local authorities, villagers, NGOs, civil engineers, and academics was formed after a 2014 earthquake resulted in the widespread destruction of homes in the Ban San Klang village of Chiang Rai, Thailand. The coalition was established to pool resources and find cost-effective ways of repairing damaged homes, as many villagers could not afford the cost of rebuilding and earthquake-proofing their homes.
To reduce costs, they combined modern and traditional building methods that reduced costs by up to 70%. Material cost was raised through engaging private sponsors and government funding while villagers volunteered to build each other’s houses at a time.
Collaboration with professionals and academics should try to integrate the existing capabilities and knowledge of communities, while addressing local needs based on their circumstances.
- Form networks to exchange knowledge with other communities who are experienced in dealing with a similar stressor or having a similar context. Facilitate discussions where network members can share respective challenges, good practices, and possible resolutions
- Build the capacity and image of the network so that it can be better positioned to access funds to grow and exchange knowledge with other organizations, see Case Study 2.1c on how the community Don Kaew, Thailand grew its network to take on the role as training provider for other communities.
Don Kaew has over 10 years of experience in training other decentralized Subdistrict Administrative Organization I(SAOs) in Thailand and has even set up a community college for SAOs to learn good practices in decentralizing and governing their subdistrict, with subsidized tuition fee from Thai Health Foundation. Several factors have helped Don Kaew to grow its learning network.
These include the selection of like-minded SAOs that are recognized for good governance and training members to showcase their community through storytelling and local branding. These efforts have helped Don Kaew to gain recognition and scale-up participatory learning projects such as immersion visits across SAOs and learning from local academics that are funded by Thai Health Foundation.
- Form advisory committees consisting of professionals and informal community leaders with local knowledge on risk management. The committee can be regularly consulted by community organizations and workgroups involved in risk management before project implementation. An example of incorporating local knowledge and practice into disaster management capacity building is discussed below in Case Study 2.1d.
- Appoint representatives at the local government level to voice out local needs and knowledge as part of policymaking to address risks that the community faces.
In Philippines, local strategies such as cloud-reading, riff-reading, and interpreting sudden acts of animals were used for generations to predict typhoons before more modern warning systems and telecommunication lines were available to prepare for upcoming typhoons. Acknowledging the continued value and relevance of this local knowledge, the Disaster Risk Reduction Management council in Bulacan, Philippines incorporates these strategies in its disaster management training alongside more modern methods to assess and prepare for typhoons, particularly in rural and indigenous communities. Community members become more receptive to the training conducted by the local government and external actors, as it does not appear as a hostile act of erasing and dismissing what they have believed in and practised for a long time.
Acknowledging the continued value and relevance of these local knowledge encourages the participation of community and empowers its members to take the leading role in addressing risks from stressors they face. Often time, they also become more receptive to skills and capacity building activities for improved ways of addressing stressors. Integrating both local/indigenous knowledge with scientific or professional ways of risk management methods help improve the community’s knowledge (CC7) and skills (CC9) in risk management, as the local context provided by local/indigenous knowledge help ground the generalized scientific knowledge.
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