As official copyeditor to the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (2016–present), I edited and proofread this handbook for disaster risk reduction practitioners, jointly published by the IFRC, ICRC, German Red Cross and the Climate Centre.
The authors consider that fragility, conflict and violence undermine the resilience of communities, the institutional frameworks designed to support disaster risk reduction (DRR) and the individual and collective coping capacity of affected populations. Effective and sustainable DRR in these settings is pivotal to saving lives and ensuring that no one is left behind amidst political and social turmoil and insecurity.
But, they ask, how do we make it work? Where do you start when communities are hesitant to trust your organisation? How do you strengthen community resilience in areas under the control of non-state armed groups? How do you expand existing DRR programming to accommodate a massive influx of refugees? This handbook helps in developing strategies that are specific to these contexts and ensuring that DRR measures are effective and appropriate.
