Key activity 2:
Tool identification
After better understanding the broad context in which
the safer school construction project will occur, program
managers need to gather existing tools to support the
program, or adapt tools from elsewhere.
Program managers and stakeholders should seek welldeveloped or adaptable tools for:
• Hazard awareness tools. NGOs, government agencies
or individuals in the education sector may already have
hazard maps, explanations, images or multimedia to help
communities understand natural hazards. Comprehensive
school safety school self-assessment template provides a
strong starting point for school-community involvement.
SECTION III: MOBILISATION
• School facilities safety tools. Stakeholders may have
physical models or images from past disasters that can be
used to convince local communities that schools can be
built to withstand hazards. Some of the most convincing
tools for structural awareness may include videos of
comparative shake table demonstrations, graphic
demonstrations of typical construction errors vs. safer
practices, physical models, images from past disasters.
Visual materials are key to communicating technical
information to all audiences, especially those that may
have low levels of literacy. The Comprehensive School
Safety Framework and other global initiatives provide a
good foundation for reaching consensus on the need for
safer schools. However, they may need to be translated
into local languages.
• Procurement and financial management tools.
Program managers may need to search for guidelines
within their orga nisation, within the society they work
or within stakeholder organisations. Procurement and
financial management guidelines, especially when
already tailored for community use, can help increase
transparency. These tools support communities that
are not familiar with managing construction projects.
Transparency and community oversight has been
demonstrated to have significant positive impacts on
construction quality.
When school communities understand they are exposed to
natural hazards but that their school buildings can be built to
resist those hazards, they can be effective partners in safer
school construction. Raising community awareness begins
with an assessment of their knowledge. Eventually, it leads
to dialogue within the community and with a wider group of
stakeholders, including those who can provide further insight
on natural hazard risks and safer construction practices.
Raising awareness, as part of broad community mobilisation,
includes several aspects:
• Identify stakeholders and assess current knowledge.
A school community is comprised of diverse stakeholders,
including students, parents and school staff. However, the
community is not limited to immediate users of the school.
Schools are a central institution in a community, one in
which the public has keen interest. Nearby residents
and community leaders have a stake in the safety of a
local school too. Functionally, the school community also
extends to the government agencies involved in education
or construction oversight.
Because community-based school construction often
relies heavily on local labour, the school community also
includes skilled tradespeople and unskilled labourers.
Contractors, architects, engineers and inspectors also
play key roles. For the duration of the project they can be
considered school community members.
Program managers should initiate conversations between
stakeholders to understand their initial risk awareness. For
example, what hazards concern them and what strategies
they believe may be effective in protecting them. A review
of how disasters, risk and safety are covered in public
media could unearth common perceptions and even
misconceptions. At the same time, stakeholders could
identify complementary disaster risk-reduction or riskawareness activities in the community to build linkages
and support each other’s messages.
• Construction training tools. Program managers will
need tools for training local labour in hazard-resistant
construction. It is important to determine whether qualified
local builders can be identified through certification
programs, guilds or other means, or if such systems
should be built into the program.
Good practice in risk
communication
• Construction supervision or tools for oversight. Safe
construction hinges on robust construction supervision.
Program managers should look for existing certification,
training, financial, construction inspection and auditing
tools.
• Risks explained as inevitable certainties, not complex
probabilities.
When proven tools do not exist, program managers should
adapt tools from other organisations with similar mandates,
or from other regions with similar construction and hazard
exposure. This adaptation needs to be more than a mere
translation into local languages. The adaptation should
include collaborative review with stakeholders and users to
ensure the tools are culturally relevant and understandable.
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Key activity 3:
Raising awareness
• Consistent messaging across all sources.
• Accurate, timely and complete information.
• Hazards explained but higher emphasis placed
on how hazards could affect valuable community
assets, such as children, education, shelter and
livelihoods.
• Emphasis on specific actions that communities or
individuals can do to protect the assets they value,
such as building safe schools.