Key considerations for the Strategic Planning and Community
Mobilisation Stage
What capacity does the community already have to construct a safe school building?
Safer school construction requires technical knowledge and a skill set that may not be available in
the community where professionals may be scarce. Creating connections between communities and
appropriate experts builds trust needed in later stages.
Safety
What is the community stakeholders’ capacity to absorb and understand hazard and
safer construction messages?
Communities may be unfamiliar with hazards and safer construction. Few people need to know
the details, but everyone benefits from a better understanding of key concepts. Mobilisation efforts
should focus on raising awareness in culturally accessible ways. In low literacy contexts, skits,
cartoons, announcements and other strategies may be useful. But care should be taken to field-test
communication approaches to avoid misinterpretation.
SECTION III: MOBILISATION
Will the project leave knowledge, skills or technology that can have a long-term impact on
safer construction and community resilience?
Capacity
building
Risk communication alone is not enough to create safe construction practices in the community.
When school construction is over, knowledge is the resource that remains in the form of skills and
active school management committees. The mobilisation process should lay groundwork for building
these skills and for ongoing community involvement in comprehensive school safety.
What support will the community need to perform their role in the
community-based project?
Communities may not be initially capable of project management. If the project involves the school
community as a key partner or as the sole manager of the project, they need detailed training and
tools. Identifying and adapting tools for raising awareness, construction training, supervision and
management is essential.
What is the broad socio-cultural and physical environment in which the safer school
construction program will be implemented?
Good programming starts with due diligence. Conducting diagnostic analysis on the hazards, the
education sector, construction practices and stakeholders provides a solid foundation for any safer
schools program. It allows program managers to build on existing processes and strengthen the
long-term sustainability of a culture of safety within and beyond the education sector.
Has the community established their priorities around education?
Socio-cultural
In many rural communities, people are concerned about education and they are happy just to get
extra classrooms or school buildings, no matter how they are built. They may have concern that any
additional cost incurred for safer construction may prevent school construction altogether. Ongoing
engagement during mobilisation and later stages can help them value safety and understand what
steps are possible, even with little or no cost.
How does the community perceive hazards?
Communities naturally focus on more frequent disasters, which need immediate action. During
community mobilisation, risk-awareness activities should highlight less frequent but potentially more
devastating hazards. Increasing community awareness about hazards needs to be coupled with
raising awareness about effective and culturally appropriate risk-reduction strategies.
41