Supporting the Capacity of CSOs in Disaster Risk Management

Project aims to contribute following processes:

1. Contributing CSOs to include DRM in their organisational policie
2. Contributing CSOs to adopt universal standards in disaster response
3. Increase roles & responsibilities of climate and disaster stakeholders

Project specifically intends “contributing to a more effective, coordinated and principled response by CSOs to potential future disasters. "The project aims to enhance the institutional and technical capacities of CSOs in disaster risk management through the Disaster Platform and improve effective disaster response. Local organizations are the first responders, therefore enhancing the ability and resources will improve the effective management and mitigation of the impacts of emergencies. There are three main activity components that will provide main outputs, which will further trigger a change process in organizational systems and practices:

1. Grant Scheme for Supporting Disaster Platform
2. DRM Grant Scheme for CSOs
3. Assistance for Grant Implementation, Networking and Capacity Building

Grant Scheme for Supporting Disaster Platform

The first component aims to build capacity in disaster risk management and includes four main areas of intervention. Within this component, 4 pre-defined sub-grant projects will be supported. As an output of extensive consultation process, the General Assembly of the Disaster Platform agreed that four main issues should be focused on and which members of the platform would be responsible for implementing these priority actions:

1. Capacity Building for Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response - Needs Map
2. Creating Communities of Disaster Volunteers -TOG
3. Emergency Response and Risk Management through Community Led Approaches -STL
4. Strengthening the Disaster Risk Governance and Public Awareness - TIDER

Disaster Risk Management Grant Scheme for CSOs

The second component addresses rights-based organizations whose goal is to build capacity in disaster risk management. In addition, this component will contribute to the ongoing civilian humanitarian response and strengthening activities in the Kahramanmaraş earthquake region. This component provides project-based grants to civil society organisations. The main beneficiaries of the grant will be:

• Civil society organisations active in the response to the February 2023 earthquakes and/or 
• Right based CSOs who are working in other fields such as gender equality, children rights, nature protection, refugee rights and others aiming to support citizens and business community with  initiatives to improve disaster risk management

Civil society organisations from the earthquake region prioritized. The following is a non- exhaustive list of actions and activities that can be implemented by civil society organisations:

• Activities to strengthen volunteerism and the role of volunteers in disaster management.
• Sharing of experience and knowledge in disaster risk management
• Improving advocacy and lobbying capacity
• Improving collaboration with public institutions, municipalities, and universities in disaster risk management
• Anticipatory actions for disaster response
• Supporting technical capacity to assess impact and vulnerability, improve monitoring and evaluation, and promote community-based education.
• Equipping civil society organisations and communities in disaster-prone areas with the necessary knowledge, skills, and capacity needed to manage and reduce disaster risk.
• Knowledge sharing with the EU and countries in the IPA region
• Active participation of CSOs in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
• Establishment of local disaster management communities
• Risk communication with citizens and society 
• Cooperation and joint work with academia
• Data collection, development, and analysis 
• Activities to raise community awareness on hazards and disaster risks

Assistance for Grant Implementation, Networking and Capacity Building

Under the third component, based on STGM's long experience in implementing sub-grants, physical access to the site will be facilitated through the establishment of a field office in the earthquake zone and technical support will be provided to grantees under the first two components.

Finally, the rights-based approach will be mainstreamed within this component. It is expected that the grant projects will conduct numerous trainings, produce toolkits for CSOs on disaster preparedness and risk reduction, and develop policy documents and manuals. The main role of STGM will be to strengthen their rights-based approach by working closely with grantees.