2. Key activities of the
Community Planning Stage
During the Planning Stage the school management
committee and program manager work with stakeholders to
identify community goals. The stage also lays groundwork
for a safer school by assessing the school site for hazards
and identifying what community training is needed.
SECTION II: OVERVIEW
• Assessing needs. Schools serve important educational
and community development purposes. The needs
assessment identifies how the school can best serve the
community.
• Conducting a feasibility study. A feasibility study
ensures projects are practical and achievable in light of
community capacity, hazards, material availability and
available construction sites.
• Drafting an implementation plan. Before moving into
the Design Stage, the school management committee
and program manager develop an implementation plan
describing tasks and their timeline. Especially important
tasks are those that increase community knowledge and
skills in hazard-resistant construction.
Stage 2. Community planning
Advantages
• Ensures community needs and
values guide the project
Challenges
• Marginalisation of some
perspectives
• Pressure to compromise may
lead to deviation from project
goals
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Strategies
Include representatives of marginalised
groups within the school management
committee and facilitate consensus
decisions without sacrificing children’s
fundamental right to safety and educational
access.
• Builds a common vision and
sense of ownership in the school
• Communities may place low
priority on the safety of school
buildings
Encourage the school management
committee to champion safety through the
project and to continue risk awareness
activities at Mobilisation Stage.
• Ensures local site conditions and
hazards are addressed
• Insufficient local knowledge
of infrequent and emerging
hazards like earthquakes,
tsunamis, extreme floods and
climate change
Create dialogue between community and
hazard specialists using participatory hazard
assessment processes to identify safe
school construction sites.
• Uncovers context-specific
challenges and potential
solutions
• Local acceptance of poor
materials and unsafe
construction practices
Orient school management committees to
hazard-resistant construction and work with
local resource people and external experts
to identify weaknesses in local materials and
construction practices.
• Increases implementing actor’s
accountability to community
• Community concerns inflate
the project scope until it is
unachievable
Clarify scope and constraints to better
manage expectations and potential
disappointment at later stages.