Disaster risk reduction for community organisations
A practical guide to disaster risk reduction for local organisations: hazards, vulnerability and capacity, a simple community risk assessment and a first plan.
Short answer
Disaster risk reduction (DRR) means acting before a hazard strikes to reduce harm. A community organisation can start with a participatory assessment of hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities, rank the risks together, then agree actions the community can manage itself. Keep the plan simple, assign owners and dates, and review it every year.
Key points
- Risk comes from a hazard meeting vulnerability, reduced by capacity.
- Assess hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities with the community.
- Use simple tools: mapping, seasonal calendar, transect walk.
- Rank risks together, then choose actions the community can manage.
- Write a short plan with owners, dates and a yearly review.
What is disaster risk reduction?
Every rainy season, the same stretch of road floods and the same families lose crops. A community organisation wants to act before the next flood. That is disaster risk reduction (DRR).
A community-based disaster risk management training manual from Bhutan's Department of Disaster Management gives clear definitions. Disaster risk is the chance of damage and loss as a result of the occurrence of a hazard. Vulnerability is a set of conditions that reduce a community's ability to prevent, mitigate, prepare for and respond to hazards. Capacities are the resources and strengths in households and communities that help them cope and recover. DRR is all activity that minimises loss of lives, property or assets, by reducing hazards or reducing the vulnerability of what is at risk.
So the basic idea is simple: risk goes up with hazard and vulnerability, and down with capacity.
What is a community risk assessment?
The same manual describes a community-based participatory process with seven sequential stages: selecting the community, building rapport, participatory risk assessment, planning, building capacity of community organisations, community-managed implementation, and monitoring. The assessment combines scientific data with local knowledge.
It has three parts.
| Part | Key question | Useful tools |
|---|---|---|
| Hazard assessment | What could harm us, where, how often, how strongly? | Hazard map, seasonal calendar, historical profile |
| Vulnerability assessment | Who and what is at risk, and why? | Social and physical vulnerability maps, transect walk |
| Capacity assessment | What strengths and resources do we already have? | Resource mapping, interviews, focus groups |
Elements at risk include people, houses, crops, livelihoods, community facilities and the environment. Ask not only who will suffer loss but why. A house may be destroyed by a landslide because of its location or because of deforestation. The reason decides the action.
How to run a first community assessment: six steps
- Pick the community and build trust. Meet leaders and groups. Explain why you are there and what you can and cannot offer.
- Describe and map the hazards. Ask older residents about past events. Draw a map on paper or the ground. Mark flood lines, slopes, shelters and safe routes.
- Assess vulnerabilities and capacities. Walk the area together. Ask who is hardest to evacuate: older people, people with disabilities, young children, pregnant women, people without a safe house.
- Rank the risks. The manual describes ranking risks by priority and deciding the acceptable level of risk, then choosing strategies. Use simple scoring: how likely, how severe, how many people.
- Choose actions. For each top risk, decide whether to prevent it, reduce it, transfer it or live with it.
- Write a short plan. The manual's planning steps include objectives, measures, resources, responsibilities and deadlines, plus barriers to implementation.
What actions can a small community organisation take?
Choose actions the community can manage with local resources first. Examples:
- clear drains and protect a water source before the rains;
- agree safe evacuation routes and a safe meeting point;
- set up a simple warning arrangement, such as a phone tree;
- store seed, tools or food in a raised, protected place;
- train volunteers in first aid and in helping people who cannot move quickly;
- plant or protect trees on slopes, where the community owns the decision.
Then connect larger needs to local authorities or partner agencies.
Myanmar context
Floods, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides affect many parts of Myanmar, and communities often have strong knowledge of past events. At the same time, access constraints, displacement and funding pressure affect what local organisations can do. The 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for Myanmar, published by OCHA, notes that the plan removed resilience and disaster risk reduction type activities from its scope to focus on life-saving and protection work. That does not make DRR less useful. It means community organisations may need to seek other funding routes, such as development or community resources, and to keep plans modest and locally owned.
Common mistakes
- Doing an assessment but never writing a plan.
- Asking only leaders, and so missing hidden vulnerabilities.
- Planning large infrastructure without technical advice or local authority agreement.
- Forgetting people with disabilities and older people in evacuation plans.
- Never reviewing the plan after a season passes.
For the next step, read about emergency preparedness planning and our risk register guide for tracking risks inside your own organisation.
How EMPO can help
EMPO is a reliable, Yangon-based training and consultancy provider and one of Myanmar's leading names in practical NGO training, with 1,200+ people trained and 15 partner organisations. Disaster Risk Reduction & Resilience is one of our training topics, offered in English and Burmese, online and in person across Myanmar. See our training services or contact us.
Sources
- Community Based Disaster Risk Management training curriculum — Department of Disaster Management, Bhutan (UNDP resource)
- Myanmar Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026 — OCHA, 2025
Questions people ask
Is DRR only for natural hazards?
No. Hazards can be natural, such as floods, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides, or induced by human processes, such as environmental damage. Use the same method for any hazard your community faces.
Do we need experts to do a community risk assessment?
Not to start. Participatory tools such as hazard maps and seasonal calendars need facilitation skills, not technical degrees. Ask local authorities or technical agencies for hazard data to add to what the community knows.
How is DRR different from emergency response?
Response acts after a disaster. DRR acts before, to reduce the chance and size of losses. Preparedness, covered in our emergency preparedness guide, connects the two.