Risk Returns

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Enabling neighbourhoods for disaster response

Roderick Kühne, Michèle Mercier, Björn Schranz, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

he Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

is committed to improving countries’ safety and prepared-

ness in disaster situations. This is part of the humanitarian

aid provided by the Swiss Confederation in a variety of settings

around the globe. Two SDC projects, in Morocco and Lebanon, are

of particular interest in this context. They demonstrate the power

of enabling neighbourhoods for disaster response to help affected

populations, save lives, alleviate suffering and protect vulner-

able populations. They also indicate the value of SDC’s focus on

promoting and supporting sustainable development, which in turn

improves resilience in communities affected by disaster.

Neighbourhood disaster response in Morocco

Morocco is prone to natural hazards, especially to floods, landslides

and earthquakes that threaten the sustainable development of the

country. With a population of over one million, Fez (established

in 789) is the third largest city in Morocco, after Casablanca and

Rabat. Old Fez has 160,000 inhabitants, and its medieval medina is

the historic centre of the city. Many Moroccan cities have similar

medinas in which traffic is largely pedestrian, due to the narrowness

of their streets. In the medinas, gas explosions, fires and collapsing

houses are frequent hazards, even without natural disasters. Weak

construction of buildings and difficulty of access make the medinas

particularly vulnerable to disasters.

The role of the local population in the first and decisive hours of disas-

ter response is critical: in disaster situations, a high number of injured

people are rescued by family members, neighbours or friends before the

professional intervention forces arrive. But these spontaneous rescu-

ers lack the most basic rescue knowledge as well as the tools for simple

rescue work. In 2008, SDC Morocco therefore launched the Secouristes

Volontaires de Proximité (SVP), a neighbourhood rescue volunteering

project, in close cooperation with the local community of Fez.

Reducing vulnerability and enhancing local coping capacities

Based on the model and experience of Neighbourhood Disaster

Volunteers (NDV) in Turkey, where since 2001 more than 3,000 volun-

teers have been trained, SDC Morocco and its partners are building up

operational, management and technical capacity to save human lives in

the first hours following a disaster. Partners include the Civil Defence

authorities, local governments (wilayas) and civil society (incorporat-

ing the population of Fez and the union of local associations of the

medinas, l’Union des associations et amicales de Fès).

The SVP pilot project in Morocco aims to reduce community vulner-

ability by building up local capacities among communities living in the

medina area, allowing them to respond quickly and adequately to local

disasters. These local capacities complement the work of the profes-

sional rescue services. The ultimate goal is to protect lives, livelihoods,

assets and infrastructure.

Neighbourhood volunteers in rescue activities

So far, 340 volunteers in eight vicinities have been mobi-

lized and trained in disaster awareness and preparedness,

basic fire fighting, basic first aid, search and rescue,

psychological support and principles of solidarity. Each

team is equipped with a container placed at a safe and

accessible location in the neighbourhoods of the medina.

The equipment is maintained by volunteers according to

a periodic maintenance programme in order to enable

quick, effective reaction in disaster situations.

Volunteers participate in training and sensitize other

volunteer groups (scouts, students and teachers) in high

schools. They also raise awareness of inhabitants and

craftsmen in the medina, using a door-to-door approach. A

high level of interest among women has been witnessed in

the SVP team and during the training phase of the project,

with women accounting for 35 per cent of the teams.

To date, the SVP teams have been asked to intervene

on highly diverse occasions. For instance, they helped the

authorities and the Civil Defence during their rescue inter-

vention in the recent 2008 floods in Fez. Also, they have

rescued people on various occasions after the collapse of

houses in the medina.

Sustainable scaling up and sharing of experiences

The SVP project experience, which uses neighbourhood

volunteers in rescue activities, is a good practice that

has gained national and international recognition. The

Governor of Fez has officially declared his commitment

to it and emphasized its importance on several occa-

sions. The excellent reputation of the project has led to

requests to SDC for additional SVPs in other Moroccan

cities. As a result, the experience gained from Fez is

being capitalized on, and the project is being scaled

up with activities in Fez, Meknès, Moulay Yakoub and

Séfrou. Activities include the establishment of a meth-

odology for the training of trainers, with new volunteers

being trained and made operational in 11 vicinities and

a total of 780 volunteers organized into 19 groups. In

future, all vicinities of the medina of Fez will be covered

by the volunteer teams, which are equipped in the same

way as those already tested in the pilot phase from 2008

to 2010 and will undergo practical manoeuvres with

the DPC.

The SVP is an effective and replicable model of develop-

ment capabilities of local response to disasters, focused on

local neighbourhood endeavours. It is based on the follow-

ing guiding principles:

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