COMMUNITY-BASED DISASTER RISK ASSESSMENT GUIDELINES

Natural disasters are becoming more extreme due to the impacts of climate change and because of this, the Vietnamese Party, State and people have identified natural disaster prevention and control as one of the priority areas in the socio-economic development process. Aside from investing financial and human resources in building natural disaster prevention works and systems over several years, the State has also been concentrating on strengthening institutions, building capacity, and raising community awareness in natural disaster prevention and response. The promulgation of the National Strategy for Disaster Prevention, Response and Mitigation to 2020, the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, and related programmes and projects have demonstrated clearly the efforts of the Vietnamese State and people in natural disaster prevention and response work. The programme “Community Awareness Raising and Community-Based Disaster Risk Management” was approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No.1002/Q?-TTg on 13 July 2009 with the specific objective to ensure that by 2020 all relevant officials will have participated in training and their capacities and knowledge in natural disaster prevention and response have increased. In addition, 70 per cent of the population in disaster-prone areas will be provided with knowledge and information on natural disaster prevention and response. Through this process, people will actively participate in risk assessments, identifying resources and developing natural disaster prevention and control plans focusing on the “four-on-the-spot motto”.