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How to do a VCA
A practical step-by-step
guide for Red Cross
Red Crescent staff
and volunteers
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© International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Any part of this handbook may be cited, copied, translated into other languages
or adapted to meet local needs without prior permission from the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, provided that the source is
clearly stated.
2006
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
P.O. Box 372
CH-1211 Geneva 19
Switzerland
Telephone: +41 22 730 4222
Telefax: +41 22 733 0395
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.ifrc.org
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Contents
Abbreviations and acronyms _____________________________
4
Acknowledgements _____________________________________
4
Introduction
______________________________________
5
How to use this guide _______________________________
What VCA is and what it isn’t________________________
7
11
Getting started
__________________________________ 19
Sensitizing_________________________________________
Managing the VCA _________________________________
Setting VCA objectives ______________________________
20
23
27
Planning the VCA _______________________________
29
Planning __________________________________________
Preparation phase __________________________________
Monitoring and evaluation ___________________________
29
30
43
Field testing: Putting into practice
what you have learned ________________________
45
Implementation phase __________________________
49
VCA day __________________________________________
49
Analysis phase __________________________________
51
Systematizing, analysing and interpreting the data ______
Returning information to the community ________________
51
55
Action planning: Transforming
vulnerabilities into capacity ___________________
57
Deciding on the best course of action _________________
Indicators__________________________________________
Recommendations and report writing __________________
What next? ________________________________________
59
74
77
79
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Conclusion _______________________________________
81
List of useful web sites _________________________
82
Boxes
Box 1
Terminology _____________________________
8
Box 2
A process for VCA: Moving from
investigation to action in 12 steps __________
9
Box 3
A learning organization:
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society ______
13
Box 4
Participation: The key ingredient ___________
14
Box 5
Useful questions to sensitize others to VCA __
21
Box 6
Mongolia: A successful VCA sensitization
workshop _______________________________
22
Realizing that VCA is not always the best
way forward ____________________________
22
Stimulating VCA knowledge in National
Societies________________________________
26
Box 9
Best practice: Inter-regional support of VCA _
29
Box 10
The Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan’s
VCA objectives in 2003 __________________
28
Box 11
Gathering information in potential
communities_____________________________
3
Box 12
The difficult task of defining “community” ___
4
Box 13
What should come out of a meeting
with community leaders ___________________
6
Box 14
Key skills and learning needed by
the VCA team ___________________________
9
Some of the methods for gathering
information in VCA ______________________
9
Box 16
Tools to measure the impact of a VCA ______
44
Box 17
Reflecting on the experience of a field test __
48
Box 18
Key challenge ___________________________
58
Box 19
Learning from experience: VCA in
the Solomon Islands ______________________
76
Box 7
Box 8
Box 15
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How to do a VCA
Figures
Figure
Figure
Figure
Figure
Figure
Figure
1
2
3
4
5
6
The relationship of the four VCA publications
The planning cycle: Assessment ____________
VCA management structure _______________
Example of a VCA schedule_______________
Bringing different sources of data together __
The planning cycle: Programming __________
7
18
24
47
53
57
Table 1
A sample matrix for VCA _________________
30
Table 2
Template for recording information about
problems, risks, capacities, needs and
possible mitigating actions ________________
61
Table 3
Template: Transforming vulnerabilities
identified by participants into capacities ____
62
Table 4
Do actions contribute to prevention,
preparedness or mitigation? _______________
63
Table 5
Template for “doable” actions _____________
65
Table 6
Example chart from the Caribbean: Flood ___
66
Table 7
Flood: Vulnerabilities and capacities________
67
Table 8
Flood: Classing actions as prevention,
preparation or mitigation _________________
67
Table 9
Flood: What resources are required? _______
68
Table 10
Example chart from the Caribbean: HIV ____
68
Table 11
HIV: Vulnerabilities and capacities _________
69
Table 12
HIV: Classing actions as prevention,
preparation or mitigation _________________
69
Table 13
HIV: What resources are required?_________
70
Table 14
Information needed for the planning matrix__
71
Table 15
Management timeline ____________________
72
Table 16
Credibility: Activities, indicators
and evidence ___________________________
75
Table 17
A sample “critical pathway” for implementing
your VCA_______________________________ 78
Tables
3
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Abbreviations
and acronyms
AIDS
BPI
CBDP
CBFA
CIT
DM
DP
HIV
NDMO
NDP
NGO
NSP
PPP
PRA
SARCS
SIRC
SMART
TRS
VCA
WPNS
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
Better Programming Initiative
community-based disaster preparedness
community-based first aid
change, influence, transformation
disaster management
disaster preparedness
human immunodeficiency virus
national disaster management office
(Caribbean nations)
national development plan
non-governmental organization
national strategic plan
participatory project planning
participatory rapid appraisal
Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society
The Solomon Islands Red Cross
specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic and timely
tool reference sheet
vulnerability and capacity assessment
well-prepared National Society
Acknowledgements
Jan Gelfand, an independent consultant, authored this document
on behalf of the International Federation. Project coordination
and editing by Graham Betts-Symonds and Nathalie Bonvin.
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Introduction
Increasingly, the National Societies of the International Red Cross
and Red Crescent Movement work alongside vulnerable communities in order to address the underlying causes of their problems,
rather than simply providing services, which was until recently the
‘traditional’ way of working with people in need. This shift has
required a new set of ideas, attitudes, methods and tools in order
to meet the ambitious objectives of programmes and projects.
Vulnerability and capacity assessment (VCA) was developed in
response to the need to support National Societies with tools for
working with communities. It is an investigation into the risks
that people face in their locality, their different levels of vulnerability to those risks, and the capacities they possess to cope with a
hazard and recover from it when it strikes. This document is a
simple and practical guide for National Society staff and volunteers who wish to undertake a local-level VCA as part of their
ongoing community programming strategy.
VCA permits National Societies to work with vulnerable communities so that the communities can better understand the forces
that affect them. They can then take measures to improve their
lives based on their own skills, knowledge and initiatives. In its
basic form, VCA helps people to be prepared for hazard impacts
and prevents some of them from turning into disasters.
During the ten years since VCA was introduced, National
Societies have gained a great deal of experience and expertise
implementing the methodology in urban and rural communities
throughout the world. In 2003, the International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies began an extensive review
of VCA, from its conceptual foundations to its actual implementation, in order to capture important lessons learned so that VCA
could be updated.
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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
The review identified important issues. In many cases, VCA has
had a significant impact on how National Societies work in communities. However, there is still need for improvement.
Misunderstandings about what VCA should or should not be
used for became apparent. National Societies were often confused;
they asked themselves whether VCA should be used for understanding their own National Societies, as opposed to using the
well-prepared National Society (WPNS) method. Is VCA to be
implemented at a national level or is it a local tool for working
with communities? Is VCA to be used only in relation to disaster
preparedness or does it have further-reaching implications if the
exercise is undertaken in communities?
In some cases VCA has been implemented as a programme in and
of itself rather than as a means to gather information which can
then form the basis of project design. Some practitioners voiced
concerns that, in spite of ‘training of trainers’, people do not seem
to understand how to implement VCA, and the existing guide is
hard to follow and too complex to be of much use to staff and
volunteers.
While this guide will address many issues and answer many questions about VCA, National Societies should always seek support
for the process from people within their own National Society or
their region who has received formal training in carrying out such
assessments and in training others in its use. These VCA ‘mentors’
can help guide the process and their experience will help to avoid
potential problems and provide insight into lessons learned from
others. Furthermore, VCA mentors do not have to be present for
the entire period of the VCA; rather they need to be available to
give guidance and be present at critical times (such as data analysis). In VCA excercises with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society
in 2000 and 2005, and in Mongolia (2002) and Yemen (2005),
the mentor provided on-site support at critically important times
during the VCA timeline or was in telephone contact with the
National Society.
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How to do a VCA
How to use this guide
This guide is meant to be practical, ‘how to do it’ guide for
National Society staff and volunteers. It has been designed for use
with the other three publications in this series: What is VCA?, VCA
toolbox and the VCA training guide (see Figure 1 below). Together,
these documents explain what VCA is, how to undertake a VCA,
how to apply a variety of information-gathering techniques and
how to train Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers in the use of
VCA tools.
Figure 1.
The relationship of the four
VCA publications
What is VCA?
How to do a VCA?
VCA toolbox
VCA training guide
After you have become familiar with the first publication in this
series, What is VCA?, you can move on to this guide, which aims
at helping you with the practical issues of undertaking a VCA, an
exciting and challenging community participation process. You
should also refer to other International Federation and National
Society documents that were originally produced for a regional
audience, but which contain useful information, such as the Make
that change booklet. 1 The community tools harmonization
publication and the updated community-based first aid (CBFA)
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Make that change –
Community-based disaster management. Trinidad and Tobago: International Federation
subregional office, 2003.
1
7
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framework 2 will help you to ensure that you use the most
effective tools, depending on the nature of the VCA and other
National Society programmes in progress.
The guide will help answer the following basic questions:
■ Why? Why is a VCA being proposed? Is it going to help
the National Society to reduce vulnerability in communities?
■ What? What does it involve? What will it be used for?
■ Who? Who will be involved in doing the VCA? Who will
benefit?
■ How? How will you go about doing the VCA? What tools and
methods are involved? Do you have the necessary capacity and
resources? How do you select the communities most at risk?
■ When? When should you start the VCA? When shouldn’t you?
How long will it take?
■ Where? In which communities will you do the VCA? With the
support of which branch(es)? Is the branch willing and able to
undertake the work?
Box 1
Terminology
A number of terms are repeated in this document. This
can either make things clearer or complicate matters.
To ensure that there is no confusion, simple terminology
related to VCAs is clarified here:
■ Methodology: The entire process or approach
for the assessment of vulnerability and capacity.
A methodology in some cases brings together certain
methods and tools to support this process. Examples
would be VCA and community-based first aid.
■ Method: A set and sequence of steps or tasks that
should be followed in order to accomplish a task that
forms part of a larger framework (methodology). A
method can be implemented through using a number
2
Available from the International Federation’s health and care department.
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How to do a VCA
■
of analytical tools. Examples include: emergency
needs analysis, hazard analysis, livelihood analysis,
gender analysis, stakeholder analysis.
Tools: A means or instrument to accomplish a specific
task. Examples include: transect walk, timeline, semistructured interviews, role play, etc.
Selecting the best tools
The guide is organized chronologically. Activities are presented in
the order that you would use them while implementing an actual
VCA, as shown in Box 2 below. While the information is comprehensive, no guide can answer every question or account for every
eventuality. National Societies must realize that each VCA is
unique and depends on a wide range of issues from branch capacity to themes of culture and the environment. What is written
here will always need to be adapted to each particular VCA. Your
VCA mentor can guide you in this.
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Box 2
1
A process for VCA: moving from
investigation to action in 12 steps
Understanding why VCA is being proposed
▼
2
Sensitizing (of National Society leadership,
branches, partners)
3
Setting up management structure for the VCA
4
Setting the VCA objectives
5
Planning the VCA
6
Preparation phase
7
Using the investigation tools with the community
8
Systematizing, analysing and interpreting
the data
9
Returning information to the community
▼
▼
▼
▼
▼
▼
▼
▼
10 Planning actions to turn vulnerabilities
into capacities
▼
11 Recommendations and report writing
▼
12 Programmes: risk reduction projects with
the community
Throughout the guide, questions are posed for consideration. Use
these to help you plan and prepare. There are also checklists to
help you make sure you have not forgotten anything. Finally,
references are made to ‘tool reference sheets’ (TRS) which can be
found in the VCA toolbox (publication 3) that will help you
complete the tasks. However, there are some things you must
careful think about before you begin.
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What VCA is and what it isn’t
National Societies must remember that VCA is a methodology for
investigation. It is a means to gather information in a participatory way for the purpose of planning activities and for making community members aware of risks, vulnerability and their own
capacities.
The first publication in this series, What is VCA?, describes
VCA as:
“…an integral part (but not the only part) of disaster preparedness
… [that] can contribute to the creation of community-based disaster preparedness programmes at the rural and urban grass-roots
level. VCA is the investigation stage which enables local priorities
to be identified and leads to the design of actions that contribute
to disaster reduction. The investigatory tools used in VCA are similar to participatory appraisal techniques, such as participatory
rapid appraisal (PRA), that are widely used by NGOs [non-governmental organizsations] and donors around the world. These
have formed the basis for grass-roots development (and disaster
preparedness) activities in which local people and communities
become the focus – not only as recipients of funding, but ideally as
active participants in the development initiative. When applied to
disaster preparedness, such methods can encourage participation,
so that the people become more completely involved in the identification of risks and in the design of programmes and actions to
prepare for disasters.” (page xxx)
What is VCA? identifies vulnerability in relation to five components which address most aspects of people’s exposure to a given
natural hazard. These are:
■ Livelihoods: Its strength and resilience to hazard impacts
(assets, income, qualifications).
■ Well-being: Nutrition, physical and mental health, morale,
etc. Well-being is largely dependent on people having an adequate income from their livelihood.
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■
■
■
Self-protection: The degree of protection afforded by capability and willingness to build a safe home, use a safe site, etc. To
na large extent, self-protection is made possible by an adequate
income from the livelihood.
Social protection: Forms of hazard preparedness provided by
society such as building codes, preparedness and mitigation
measures, shelters, etc.
Governance: Includes social and political networks and
institutions.
If we look at VCA within a disaster context, we need to recognize
that, while risk reduction and capacity building at the national
level is fundamental to any overall risk reduction strategy, VCA is
best geared to addressing issues at the local and community level.
Indeed, it is hazard, risk and capacities mapping at the National
Society level that identifies the potential high-risk communities in
which VCA should be undertaken.
National Societies may, therefore, need to limit the types of risk
addressed by the VCA, accepting that it is not always the best way
to deal with all problems. This clarification makes VCA very powerful, because it is then possible to work with specific components
of vulnerability (and their associated capacities). The programmes
and activities that develop from these components address the
needs more clearly. VCAs can also show how existing Red Cross
Red Crescent activities are already working with capacities and
addressing issues of vulnerability, and how they can be better
integrated with disaster preparedness and risk reduction.
Several years of practice has, however, demonstrated that VCA is
applicable to much more than ‘just’ risk reduction. In many cases,
communities prioritize issues such as health, education or lack
of income rather than natural disasters, without recognizing the
relationship that these issues have to natural hazards and that
vulnerability cannot be confined to natural phenomena only.
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How to do a VCA
National Societies must understand that whenever you work with
communities you will create expectations and incorporate this
into their VCA planning. This may be normal – for why else
would you get involved in working with communities and individuals, if not to help them find solutions to issues they face? –
but it also means National Societies have to be careful about the
types of expectations they create and ensure that communities
understand what they can and cannot do.
So, what happens when issues that do not pertain to disaster preparedness are identified and prioritized for action by communities
in the planning process? What do you do then? First and foremost, you must always remember that this is real life for communities and not just an exercise.
Box 3
A learning organization:
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society
In 2000, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society
(SARCS) was involved in a VCA-like assessment that
used participatory rapid appraisal (PRA) tools in 13 of
its branches nationwide. In the aftermath of the 1999
Turkey earthquakes, the National Society was worried
about the effects of disaster on north-western Syria,
an area which shares the same fault line.
Focus groups and interviews conducted with
management, staff and volunteers around the country
identified hazards and risks other than earthquakes
which were of a greater priority to local people.
These included lack of water, pollution and various
health issues.
The National Society realized its volunteers might
be able to help mitigate both everyday problems
and those associated with sudden-onset disasters.
In partnership with the Ministry of Health and Civil
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Defence, they began training volunteers in integrated
health and disaster preparedness activities.
SARCS volunteers were involved in a number of health
and disaster preparedness projects, such as cleaning
the river in Damascus and organizing local awareness
campaigns to encourage people to use garbage
collection points to begin to deal with problems of
pollution. The trained volunteers from SARCS branches
in Hama and Idlib were put to the test in 2001 when
the Zaizon dam collapsed. They were able to respond
promptly, providing victims with first aid, health care,
relief and food aid, as well as carrying out a rapid
assessment and managing a temporary camp. Local
government agencies praised their role and a postdisaster review lead to changes in the SARCS’s
disaster management.
These activities are a good example of how community
assessment can lead to action that addresses not only
people’s day-to-day priorities, but also preparedness to
respond to natural disasters. (See the International
Federation’s fact sheet Preparedness for response to
future disaster risk reduction. 3)
Box 4
Participation: The key ingredient
Participation can mean a great many things. It can
range from people simply ‘participating’ in an activity
to people being the principal actors and decisionmakers in a complex process.
In order to better understand what we mean by
participation and how participation can be used to
strengthen or weaken the VCA process, let’s look at the
Available on the International Federation’s FedNet or from the Disaster Preparedness and
Response Department, International Federation, PO Box 372, CH-1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland.
3
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simple way to define different levels of participation as
developed by Sherry Arnstein. 4 She used a “ladder” of
participation with each rung describing different levels
of community involvement.
Citizen control
Delegated power
Partnership
Placation
Consultation
Degree of
citizen power
Degree of
Tokenism
Informing
Therapy
Non participation
Manipulation
The top three rungs (partnership, delegated power and
citizen control) are where real and meaningful
participation begin. Power is redistributed through
negotiation between citizens and ‘power-holders’.
Planning and decision-making responsibilities are
shared, for example through joint committees.
Communities have the power to ensure that the
programme is accountable to them. In citizen control,
those who are the object of programmes have control
over the programme and its activities while members of
outside organizations act in a more advisory capacity.
Working with volunteers and communities does not
necessarily mean that you are working in a
participatory way. The role that both of these groups
take on in a VCA will determine the degree to which
they feel as if they ‘own’ the process or whether they
4
Arnstein, Sherry. “A Ladder of Citizen Participation”, Journal of the American Planning
Association, 35:4, July 1969, pp. 216–224.
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are simply being asked to implement activities or
provide information. Those guiding the VCA must be
clear on what type of participation they want and what
the implications are for the overall process.
If the volunteers and community members are active
participants in the implementation of the VCA, they will
feel more committed to a process which could
transform the way branches work and where people
become the principal authors in projects and activities
that reduce local vulnerabilities. If they have no
decision-making power, the process runs the risk of
appearing as another activity organized from outside,
and momentum will not be sustainable. Remember: the
underlying objective of doing a VCA is that it will
contribute to making people’s lives better. What would
you prefer to do? Implement yet another activity? Or
accompany branches and communities in a process
that could help transform them?
The bottom three rungs – manipulation, therapy
(making people feel good) and informing – contain no
participation at all, although those that use them
attempt to disguise one-way communication as
participation. Proposed plans are already decided
upon and the job of the facilitator is to achieve public
support through public relations.
Rungs four and five – consultation and placation (to
appease) – focus on a one-way flow of information.
Those running the process use attitude surveys,
neighborhood meetings and public enquiries to collect
information.
Those leading the VCA exercise must be prepared for any eventual outcome that the community highlights as a priority whether it
is disaster risk reduction, health or income generation. This can be
a source of difficulty for the branches if they are not ready.
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How to do a VCA
Sometimes National Societies have not had much experience of
grass-roots participatory activities. When they carried out VCA
for the first time, the enthusiasm generated sometimes led to the
VCA’s participatory methodology being confused with the purpose. It is crucial to understand that VCA is a methodology and
not a programme or isolated activity, and it must be made be clear
from the onset.
Branches must know what they can offer and what is beyond their
capacity and requires interventions from others. At the very least,
the different branch departments (e.g., health, youth, disaster
management) must agree to work together before a VCA can be
undertaken effectively.
It is natural – and should not be perceived as negative – that communities might identify priority issues that fall outside the Red
Cross Red Crescent’s mandate of capacity. But this emphasizes the
need to be clear about what you can and cannot do and who may
be able to help us. You will need to develop strategic partnerships
with other organizations in order to address outstanding issues
identified by communities or to advocate with government for
changes. These partnerships must be cultivated before beginning
any assessment process. Most importantly, you need to communicate VCA’s potential and its limitations to communities before
you begin. Transparency is vital and one of the most important
things to keep in mind throughout the process.
This underlying theme of potential outcomes of the VCA process
will be stressed over and over in all the VCA publications: there
are a wide range of outcomes that can result from undertaking a
VCA, many of which cannot be foreseen or controlled. VCA is a
means for communities to understand issues they face and it
inevitably helps them to identify a wide spectrum of issues and
not just those relating to natural hazards. The importance of each
issue depends on the community members and not simply on
what services the Red Cross Red Crescent can offer.
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It must also be understood that VCA is not an effective means to
collect information about your own National Society as part of an
internal evaluation process. While these are important needs,
practical experience with VCA shows that it is not suited to the
analysis of a National Society’s ‘vulnerability and capacity’. Other
more appropriate International Federation assessment methods,
such as capacity assessment performance indicators, the characteristics of a well-functioning National Society and the well-prepared
National Society process, have been designed specifically to
analyse National Society’s capacities and create internal organizational development programmes to increase impact in reducing
vulnerability.
The role that VCA plays in programme planning must be clear
from the onset. Gathering information and then not doing anything with it serves no purpose at all. Information must be systematized and analysed so that it becomes useful to the planning
process. The National Society must also understand how VCA fits
into the assessment process and how assessment forms part of the
project cycle. This is shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2.
The planning cycle: assessment
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Getting started
The first and most critical question to be answered about the
VCA is: Why is a VCA being proposed and will it help the
National Society reduce vulnerability in communities?
Remember, the decision to undertake a VCA should not be taken
lightly. It requires time, effort and serious responsibility from the
National Society’s headquarters to its branches and from branches to communities. Below are a series of questions that will help
you tackle this fundamental question and clarify a number of
other issues:
■ Is community work reflected in your national development
plans, policies and structure? If not, is your National Society
prepared to make the necessary changes so that it becomes part
of what you do?
■ Is the proposed VCA linked with national programmes?
■ Is your National Society willing to get involved in working in
a participatory manner with communities over the medium to
long term?
■ Is VCA the most appropriate process for what you are trying to
achieve or are there other methods you should be using?
■ Do you have the resources and skills to undertake a VCA and
to do the required follow-up?
■ Are the national headquarters and the participating branches
willing to make the necessary investments in training staff and
volunteers in community work?
■ Are the other technical and programme departments prepared
to respond to community needs that arise, such as health,
which are not part of disaster management?
■ Are there other organizations that you can call upon for help
should the needs of the community be beyond your mandate
or capacity?
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Key
message
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Don’t start implementing the VCA before
you have fully analysed all the issues
raised and everybody is satisfied with the
answers.
As you can tell from these questions, there is much to be done
before any branch decides to do a VCA. There must be political
will from boards and management, commitment from branches
and technical departments, and financial and human resources to
undertake the exercise.
Sensitizing
First of all, make sure the political support to undertake a VCA is
in place. Board members, management, technical staff and volunteers must all be sensitized as to what a VCA is and what it means
to implement one. But for this sensitization to be successful, you
who are coordinating the process must fully understand VCA, be
able to present it to others and answer detailed questions. You
should, therefore, first prepare and develop a strategy to sensitize
management, staff and volunteers. You must read about VCA,
develop a concise presentation and be clear on why VCA is the
best course of action given the objectives of your project.
Remember VCA is not the end but rather a means to gather the
needed information to plan projects.
Over the last few years, VCA has become quite well know in many
National Societies. However, just because the National Society’s
board or management has heard about it and decided to give it the
green light does not mean that they understand what is involved
in doing a VCA or what the obligations and responsibilities are to
branches and communities. It is the job of the staff who has decided to undertake the exercise to fully explain the VCA process to
all involved including those who will decide and those who will
implement.
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Box 5
Useful questions to sensitize
others to VCA
Here are some questions and tips to keep in mind:
■ Who should be sensitized?
■ What do you want them to know?
■ Who can help to sensitize the different groups?
■ When is the best time to talk with people and/or
make presentations? You may want to organize a
presentation during regular activities/meetings of
the board.
■ Let the VCA sell itself. Remember that VCA is a powerful process if it is appropriate for what you want to
do. But don’t forget it might not be the right process
for your project.
■ Practise giving the presentation. Think about the
questions that people might ask you and make sure
you can answer them.
■ Disseminate information about VCA directly to
branch volunteers.
■ You may wish to identify people in your National
Society who would be most interested in VCA and
ask them to help spread the word about the utility
of the process.
■ Don’t forget to sensitize relevant representatives from
government and other organizations working in the
region or people doing similar work.
If doing direct community work is new to your National Society,
you need to consider the implications of doing a VCA. You may,
through VCA, build long-term relations with communities.
Demand on branches to work with the community may increase
and you will need to assess your ability to meet those demands
before you begin. There are no half measures once you start. These
issues make the decision to undertake VCA crucial and something
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that all National Societies must carefully consider before beginning the process.
Box 6
Mongolia: A successful VCA
sensitization worskshop
In 2002, members of the Mongolian Red Cross Society
took part in a VCA sensitization workshop. A VCA
trainer/facilitator from the Middle East ran the session,
using only flip charts, pens and his own style of
encouraging communication.
A key to success was that the workshop was held in
Mongolian with translation into English. This meant that
the onus was on the facilitator to understand the
Mongolian and not the other way round. Groups
worked in Mongolian, but they also reported back in
that language, while the interpreter translated and
made notes in English on the flip charts, so that the
facilitator could understand.
Box 7
Realizing that VCA is not always
the best way forward
In 2002, a health delegate working with the
Belarusian Red Cross wanted to help the National
Society to learn about VCA, so that they could decide
whether or not to carry out an assessment. A VCA
trainer organized a workshop, which was attended by
senior National Society management, staff and
volunteers, to illustrate how the VCA process can help
National Societies identify key hazards, risks and
capacities. In this case, the process showed that most
of the problems facing Belarus were health-related and
many stemmed from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
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How to do a VCA
But the most important thing that the Belarusian Red
Cross participants learned was that their National
Society was not yet ready to undertake a VCA and
that other tools were more appropriate for the activities
they wanted to carry out at that time.
The sensitization workshop was successful in that it
prevented a National Society from carrying out an
assessment which, based on its key programme
priorities, was inappropriate. It also showed
participants that the National Society did not yet have
the capacity to carry out a VCA effectively.
In 2005, the Belarusian Red Cross was able to
demonstrate how local community assessment can be
connected to national-level risk, hazard and capacities
mapping.
Managing the VCA
Once the decision has been made to go ahead, you need to look
at how the VCA will be managed. A management structure on
several levels must be created to ensure that the VCA functions.
(see Figure 3 next page).
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Figure 3. VCA management structure
Each level of the management structure has different roles and
responsibilities, as do the relationships between each level.
Board
Political
Head of
National Society
or of technical
department
Driving force
Headquarters
VCA coordinator
+ task force/
managing committee
and implementation
team
Implementing
body
Branch
implementation
team
Source: Based on Arnstein’s “A Ladder of Citizen Participation” (op.cit.).
Figure 3’s “political” level consists of the National Society’s board,
which must approve the VCA. This ensures political support as
well as an understanding of what is required to undertake a VCA
and what are the implications. The board must be kept informed
of what is happening throughout the process.
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How to do a VCA
The “driving force” refers to the leader or leaders (at least one)
who is/are in charge of driving the VCA and is/are key for ensuring that the process advances. The leader (or at least one of the
leaders) should have received formal training in VCA. They may
form part of the managing committee or task force (see below).
The “implementing body” consists of the people at the National
Society’s headquarters and branches who will actually implement
the VCA.
A managing committee or task group, which is charged with the
day-to-day VCA implementation decisions, will help ensure the
process runs as smoothly as possible. If possible, members should
include a person from the board and representatives from the
driving force and implementation body. Putting such a structure
into place will ensure that all levels of the National Society are
informed as to the progress of the VCA. The exact form that this
operational structure takes on will depend on how your National
Society functions and what is needed. Some VCAs may not
require such a structure. However, the more people involved, the
less chance for surprises and the better chance for success.
As we have discussed above, the VCA process may result in communities prioritizing a wide range of issues that may or may not have
anything to do with natural disasters. This quite often happens and
may necessitate the involvement of other Red Cross Red Crescent
departments in the proposed project. In this case, try to ensure that
these departments are represented in the VCA structure, so that
everyone is aware of and involved in the process, and institutionwide support for the proposed project is easier to obtain.
Your National Society may also decide to invite external people to
be part of one of the committees. Having representatives from
external partners and/or government will ensure better dissemination of the results, increase the chances of obtaining funding for
projects and secure better opportunities for multi-sectoral and
multi-institutional acceptance and replication of the VCA process.
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Box 8
Stimulating VCA knowledge
in National Societies
Some National Societies would like to promote the use
of VCA and spread information and learning about the
process throughout their Society. A simple and effective
way of doing this is to invite a member from a branch
that is considering carrying out a VCA to participate
in either the managing committee/task force and/or
the implementing team. The experience gained will be
useful if a branch decides to undetake their own VCA.
Box 9
Best practice: Inter-regional support
of VCA
National Societies often call upon trainers from other
areas – or even other continents – to support their
training, sensitization and implementation activities.
Exmaples include:
■ The Dominican Red Cross decided to carry out a
VCA as part of their community-based disaster preparedness (CBDP) programme. Two recently trained
VCA practitioners (from Argentina and Venezuela)
provided training support.
■ A Somali VCA trainer helped carry out an
assessment in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
■ In southern Africa, VCA trainers from Pakistan
facilitated the process.
■ A facililtator from the Middle East helped VCA
sensitization in Mongolia (see Box 6).
When forming the management structure, make sure the following tasks are also completed:
■ Draw up terms of reference, which should include the roles and
responsibilities (division of work) of all those involved whether
they are part of the management committee or not (e.g., the
board, the Secretary General, etc.).
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■
■
■
■
■
Get a clear commitment from those involved; this could
be done in writing if everyone agrees.
Outline what is needed for the structure to function
(time, resources, communication channels, etc.).
Identify potential problems that could occur and possible
solutions to them (e.g., relations between different levels).
Prepare a timeline and a budget.
Decide when to dissolve the structure.
Setting VCA objectives
Key
message
A major goal of this revision of the VCA guide is to clarify the
purpose of VCA and confine its use to the places and types of risk
for which it is relevant and best suited. This requires a careful definition of its role, and where it fits within National Societies’
national development plans and policies, and other areas of Red
Cross Red Crescent work and priorities. As part of this process,
the management committee has to establish clear and precise
objectives for the VCA.
The objectives of your VCA
are critically important.
The following should be kept in mind as the objectives are
developed:
■ The overall objective should answer the question: Why do you
want to do a VCA?
■ Specific objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic and timely (SMART) as well as clear and understood
by all.
■ Use a participatory process to develop your objectives.
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■
■
■
■
Everyone involved in the process should approve the objectives
in order to avoid future problems.
Determine the size and parameters of the VCA, by answering
questions such as: Where will the VCA be implemented? How
many communities and which branches will be involved?
What human and financial resources are available?
Bear in mind the cultural attitudes and practices of the
communities where the VCA will be done.
Key
message
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VCA requires commitment and should not
be done without the agreement of the
people who will be most implicated –
branch volunteers and communities.
Box 10 The Red Crescent Society of
Azerbaijan’s VCA objectives in 2003
■
■
■
■
Promote a greater community awareness of hazards
and vulnerabilities, and knowledge of basic coping
strategies.
Encourage regional Red Crescent to develop greater
responsibility for programmes through involvement
in planning and assessment processes.
Support the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan to
become greater advocates for vulnerable groups
in the disaster preparedness and response process.
Promote better cooperation between the National
Society, local authorities and other organizations.
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Planning the VCA
Now that your National Society has decided to do a VCA, you
have a management structure in place, objectives have been developed and everybody is enthusiastic about getting on with doing it,
what is the next step?
Planning
VCA can take on a number of different forms from a quick
information gathering process to a more complicated and detailed
participatory course of action. A short process will provide
information but may lack meaningful community participation
and commitment, which in turn can reduce the chance for success
of resulting projects. Longer, more profound processes require
additional time and resources but allow the branch and the
community to develop relationships which may lead to added longterm impact.
Planning is crucial whatever the form of the VCA. Proper planning
is needed so that you know what is to be done during the course
of the VCA from its inception to completion. This will help make
sure that everything is organized according to a schedule and that
no details are left out. You can identify who does what, when things
need to be done and what resources are needed. It also lets you
monitor progress and evaluate the activities’ quality and impact.
You need to be clear that the VCA timeline is a ‘roadmap’ which
may need ongoing adjustment.
Below is an example of a planning matrix, including a timetable,
that could be used to organize a VCA.
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Table 1.
A sample matrix for VCA
Phases
Activity
Who will
ensure it is
done?
Resources
needed
Preparation phase
Implementation phase
Analysis phase
Action planning phase
The planning process should involve as many of the people who
will participate in the process as possible. In some cases this is difficult to accomplish, especially during the preparation phase when
the VCA coordinator and management committee are responsible
for putting the process in place. Once the implementing team’s
members have been trained in VCA, they should be encouraged
to take an active role in the planning.
Let’s take a look, in detail, at some of the issues to consider and
the tasks to be completed in each of the different phases
Preparation phase
The activities to be carried out during this preparation phase,
which are mainly the responsibility of the staff and management
committee, include making all necessary decisions and completing activities that need to be done before the actual VCA process
begins. This phase takes time to fulfil and requires considerable
energy on the part of the VCA coordinators and staff, who should
all be trained and ready to carry out the assessment. Having everything in place also helps minimize potential problems.
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How to do a VCA
March
February
January
December
November
October
Other
Some of the initial phase’s activities include:
■ Identification of, and communication with, participating
branches and communities.
■ Selection and training of staff and volunteers (implementing
team).
■ Identification of investigation tools to used in the VCA.
■ Identification and acquisition of necessary resources.
Identification of branches
and communities
Identifying branches and communities at risk which will take part
in the VCA must based on clearly defined criteria. Although criteria will depend on the VCA’s objectives and will be different for
each situation, they should include:
■ Which communities are particularly vulnerable? (This should
be partly based on national risk maps.)
■ How accessible are the communities?
■ How many communities? What size should the VCA be?
■ Is the branch experienced in working with communities?
Can the VCA be linked to other Red Cross Red Crescent
activities?
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■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Does the branch have other “entry points” into communities
through other programmes?
Is the community interested? Is it sufficiently organized?
Does the branch have the political will to carry out the VCA?
What is the branch’s capacity? Does it have a sufficient number
of volunteers?
Are other NGOs working in nearby communities? Could you
work in partnership with them?
How secure will the working environment be for staff and
volunteers?
If the number of communities with whom you can work is
limited, pick a community that is representative of issues that
other communities face. This “sample” will help you extend
programmes over a wider geographical area.
Given the above criteria, can the selected branch and
community ensure a reasonable chance that the project will be
successful?
By design, VCA is participatory. It would be contradictory to
undertake a VCA but not allow branches and communities to
participate in the development of the process. Branches know
if they have the capacity to undertake a VCA or not. National
headquarters should avoid unilaterally deciding which branches
will be involved. They must be consulted.
Branches should also be involved in the selection of communities
where the VCA will occur. They know their region and are aware
of many of the risks and vulnerabilities. Communities must also
be consulted and the VCA process explained to them. They can
then decide if they wish to participate. It is vital that the necessary
time be taken to explain to communities, in a way that they
understand, what is involved, why the VCA is being proposed,
what its purpose is and what the expected results are. Branches
and communities should feel they own the process. After all,
branch members will do most of the work and communities will
be most affected by the process. They have the right to participate
actively. During visits to the communities, ensure that Red Cross
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Red Crescent representatives maintain a friendly, dynamic and
motivational attitude, whilst at the same time clarifying realistic
expectations.
Communities are often sceptical about outsiders coming in and
asking a lot of questions. Hopefully, the branch will already have
a good relationship with the target communities. But it is still
important that the VCA process be thoroughly explained to villagers (not just community leaders) and that they feel comfortable
with what will happen. This will help to avoid future problems.
Once a potential community or communities have been chosen,
representatives of the VCA team need to visit the community and
meet with leaders. This is the first time that the team will enter the
community as part of the “official” VCA process. The main purpose of this visit is to give an initial explanation of the proposed
VCA to community leaders and organize a formal meeting where
it can be explained in detail. In addition the team can use the
opportunity to gather basic information about the community.
Box 11 Gathering information in potential
communities
During the first visit to potential communities, you need
to gather the following information and/or complete
these tasks:
■ Meet key leaders.
■ Make a list of other leaders (including contact
information).
■ Identify:
■ other humanitarian actors working in the
commu-nity;
■ level of organization in the community;
■ local government structure;
■ major problems.
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■
■
Familiarize yourself with the layout of the community.
Understand the rhythm of the community: When do
people work? What time are they at home? When is
the best time to carry out activities?
Box 12 The difficult task of defining
“community”
“Community” can be interpreted in many different ways.
The wide body of academic literature on the subject is
full of rich debate on what community is and is not.
While not everybody agrees on a definition, it is still
very important that you look at the term carefully before
beginning any community process – especially VCA.
For some, community can be based in affiliation –
a sense of belonging to a specific group based on
themes such as religion or race. For others, community
is defined by having similar intentions or interests.
For some people, geography or a common locality
(a place where people carry out activities of everyday
life) is a requirement of community. Many argue that
locality is not relevant in modern life because people’s
activities occur in a large geographical area. They
may live in one area of a city, work in another and
shop and do other things in a third area. People may
feel they are part of a community where the members
live very far from one another – even in different
countries. If you work in disaster preparedness,
however, geography or locality is probably a key
element, because the focus is on people living in a
certain area where there is a common risk or hazard.
However you view community, you must always be
aware of the fact that not everyone thinks the same
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way. Conflict exists is every community just as it does
in families or between friends. Inequity, too, is always
present: some people are the “haves” and others the
“have-nots”. You must also recognize that community
organizations do not always represent all sectors of the
community and that, in some cases, they do not really
serve those they claim to help. Working with
communities can take a long time and may be a
political process, so it is vital that you are clear about
who you are working with and what you are trying to
do (see session 10 in the VCA training guide for a
more detailed discussion on connectors and dividers).
As each community is different so too is the way we
work with communities. Community development may
be the focus of the process in some cases, while in
others, building communities may be the aim.
Regardless of how you define the term, community
always involves face-to-face interaction and human
relationships. The work of the Red Cross Red Crescent
is to help improve these relations through encouraging
participation and dialogue aimed at improving the
lives of community members.
You are now in a position to select and invite, in writing, different community leaders to attend a sensitization meeting. The
most important thing is not what you call the meeting, but ensuring the participation and involvement of as many community
leaders as possible and gaining their approval and commitment
for the process. Make sure that all participants are aware of who
else will attend.
You should make an agenda for the meeting and prepare a presentation that includes the messages you want to communicate to
community leaders. These messages must be clear in order to
avoid creating unrealistic expectations of the Red Cross Red
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Crescent in the community. This meeting is where the first unrealistic expectations may arise and if you are not clear from the
beginning, you will have problems in maintaining the focus of the
community for the remainder of the VCA.
Box 13 What should come out of a meeting
with community leaders
By the end of the meeting you should have:
■ clear points of reference within the community with
whom you will work;
■ a better idea of community interests and needs;
■ promoted the community ownership and commitment
needed to support the VCA process, stressing the
focus on vulnerabilities and capacities and not on
all the issues faced by the community; and
■ a tentative, simple VCA action plan with a timeline
that has been developed and agreed upon by the
community leaders by the end of the meeting.
Remember that it is up to community members to
decide if they will become involved. If they decide
to participate they will be able to help the team with
the remainder of the information-gathering process.
They know best with whom the team should talk,
when the best time is to find people and where they
can be found.
Selection and training of staff and
volunteers (implementing team)
A VCA is time-consuming and demanding of staff and volunteers
but it also offers the chance for everyone involved to gain
valuable community work skills and to participate in a process
that is enjoyable and will lead to meaningful impact in reducing
vulnerability.
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The selection and training of the “VCA team”, especially at the
branch level, will determine the degree of success of the VCA. You
will need to decide on the team’s size and composition, basing
your selection on clear criteria including:
■ The team should include a mix of board members and “rank
and file” volunteers.
■ It should be multidisciplinary and have skilled people in all
areas.
■ There should be a cross-section of volunteers who can connect
with different community sectors, such as youth and women.
■ Their level of education should be at least ….. (if you decide to
use education as a criterion, you must decide on what level of
education is most appropriate – but be careful not to exclude
people who do not have that level of education but who could help
in the process).
■ They should have:
■ knowledge of the Red Cross Red Crescent;
■ good communication skills;
■ a knowledge of necessary languages;
■ group dynamics skills;
■ facilitation skills;
■ patience and integrity.
■ They should be:
■ at ease working with all sectors of the community;
■ organized;
■ available and committed for the whole process, which
includes training, practice sessions, actual VCA, data analysis
and planning.
■ The need to show that they are dynamic and enthusiastic.
■ There should be youth in the group working with young
people and women in the group working with women.
■ There should be enough team members.
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You should seriously consider inviting
people from outside the Red Cross Red
Crescent to participate. This may include
representatives from target communities,
partner organizations and different levels
of government.
Key
message
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In 2004, National Societies in the
Caribbean carried out a regional VCA
training session. Participants included
representatives from the countries’ national
disaster management offices (NDMO).
This led to more effective VCA with real
cooperation and understanding.
Once the team members have been selected, sufficient time must
be allocated to training them in all aspects of VCA. It is vital that
the team members understand what VCA is and are familiar with
the various community work and investigative methods to be
used. Experience has shown that at least three full consecutive
days are needed to train the team.
VCA is a community-based process requiring knowledge and
skills about working in communities. Community work is a very
specialized and is as much an “art” as a science or technique. If
staff and volunteers are not properly prepared, it doesn’t matter
how good the models, methods, tools and materials are. Use your
mentor or another resource person to help design and implement
a systematized training programme that will ensure staff and
volunteers have the necessary knowledge and skills to enter into
complex community processes, of which VCA is just one part.
You should also devote adequate time to ongoing training.
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Box 14 Key skills and learning needed
by the VCA team
Team members should receive training in the following
themes:
■ Understanding VCA including relevant terminology
and concepts.
■ Participatory methods of investigation.
■ How communities function.
■ Culture and cultural sensitivity.
■ Team-building, decision-making, group dynamics.
■ Facilitation techniques.
■ Recording and interpretation of data.
Identification of investigation tools
to used in the VCA
The bulk of the implementation team’s training will focus on how
to use the various VCA research tools. All of the tools are designed
to identify and understand the different types of vulnerabilities
and capacities in a given community depending on the
established VCA objectives – in other words, creating a baseline
of information.
Box 15 Some of the methods for gathering
information in VCA
Some of the principal methods include:
■ Analysis of secondary/external sources (usually done
prior to the actual VCA and with a skilled group of
volunteers).
■ Sampling.
■ Questionnaires.
■ Interviews.
■ Focus groups.
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■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Historical timeline.
Mapping – risk, community, spatial, capacity, etc.
Seasonal calendar or chart.
Institutional social network analysis.
Direct observation.
Transect walk.
Problem tree.
Two VCA investigatory methods: Focus group (left) and mapping.
Individual descriptions and explanations of how to use each of
these tools are not included in this guide, but can be found in two
of the series of VCA publications: the VCA toolbox and the VCA
training guide. The toolbox focuses on what each tool is to be used
for and how to apply each method, while the training guide
explains how to train people in their use. The VCA training guide
will help you to organize and implement a comprehensive
training programme. If your National Society does not have
people skilled in these areas, you should ask for support from a
VCA mentor, an International Federation delegation or a sister
National Society.
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During the VCA team’s training research methods, all members of
the team should be brought into planning process. At this point,
you should decide which of the methods to employ. The final list
will depend on what information you wish to collect as well as
other issues such as the number of available volunteers and the
time you have. You must also consider the community’s culture
when you are deciding what methods to use and who will do the
facilitation. Some methods may not be appropriate. Gender may
also play a significant role in determining who does what and
with whom.
With people now having received basic training, the planning
process can move ahead more rapidly. Decisions can be made on
logistics and the division of work – who will do what and when.
Some team members and trained volunteers can begin research by
checking out secondary or external sources of information.
Secondary/external sources are information acquired from sources
external to the community, i.e., that does not stem from the
community VCA process itself. This will allow the VCA team to
liaise with potential partners that may be able to provide
information that could feed into the VCA such as national
disaster coordinating committees, meteorological offices and
national and local governments. Reviewing this type of
information helps produce baseline data and makes team
members more aware of risks, including emerging risks such as
global climate change, in both the communities where the VCA
will be carried out and the wider regional context. Team members
can also start to think about how some of this information might
be relevant in the process of conducting the VCA and how it
might be presented to the community.
By beginning to do actual research, the team will have a sense of
starting the process which is important to maintain motivation
and a needed sense of ownership.
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Identification and acquisition
of necessary resources
National Societies are often so involved in the VCA planning
process, working with communities and training people that they
forget that, without proper administrative systems or financial
resources, they will be unable to implement the actual VCA
activities. Many good ideas have failed because people neglected
this key area. An important part of any project is the development
of administrative systems and training staff and volunteers in
their use. This must be done from the beginning and be included
in all plans.
Just as team members have specific roles in managing the VCA, so
they must assume responsibility for administration and financial
control. A budget must be prepared, letters must be sent and
reports need to be written. Remember that reports are often the
only means by which you can communicate successes to donors
and other organizations. Good reports may encourage donors and
other stakeholders to participate.
In all cases, you should put together a sensible budget, which
reflects the costs associated with doing a VCA. A VCA does not
need to be expensive, however. The resources most needed are the
time, energy and commitment of staff and volunteers. If your
National Society does not have the necessary funding, you will
need to produce a proposal that can be sent to potential donors.
Donors will also want to know how the VCA links to other
programming and, given that VCA is a research process (and not
a project in itself ), how it will lead to projects that will reduce
vulnerability and strengthen capacity. You should therefore
recognize from the beginning that VCA must always lead to a
planning process which will eventually help reduce vulnerability.
You might sometimes have to modify your plans slightly once the
VCA team is in place and more people are involved in planning
and decision-making (for example,your National Society may
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How to do a VCA
decide to change communities or branches). Make sure your
proposal to donors reflects these modifications.
As already mentioned, the VCA must lead to some risk reduction
intervention. These activities also require funding, so they should
be considered from the beginning of the process and be included
in the VCA funding proposal. However, many activities, such as
mitigation micro-projects, will only be identified once a
community participatory planning and project development
process is undertaken.
Monitoring and evaluation
(See also tool reference sheet 21 in the VCA toolbox.)
Monitoring and evaluation of the VCA process itself must be
included from the onset. It is the only way to determine if the
process has had an impact in both the National Society and the
communities. Monitoring and evaluation will show you if people
are pleased with the process and see value in it, as well as give you
the opportunity to document lessons learned so that you improve
capacity continuously.
You also need to determine if the National Society, especially at
the branch level, has gained skills that can be transferred to other
projects. You may wish to know if, as a result of the VCA process,
the National Society is more interested in working with
communities and if these changes in attitudes are reflected in
policies and in programme innovation. A good evaluation process
is also critical to show donors the impact of the process that they
have funded. Assessing how you have done also shows
communities that you know what you are doing and are serious
about risk reduction, and that working with the Red Cross Red
Crescent will help make positive changes in their communities.
A wide range of tools exist that can be used to measure impact.
Your points of departure are the VCA objectives which, if you
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remember, must follow the SMART rule – specific, measurable,
attainable, realistic and timely. You should refer to the objectives
throughout the VCA to see if they are being met. And if they are
not, you should try to ascertain what needs to be adjusted to bring
the objectives and the impact of the activities into line.
Box 16 Tools to measure the impact of a VCA
■ Questionnaires given at the beginning and the end
of the VCA to measure changes in attitudes towards
VCA, the Red Cross Red Crescent, community work
or other topics that your National Society thinks are
important.
■ Interviews with representatives from different groups
such as the board, technical staff, management and
volunteers.
■ Interviews with focus groups.
■ Analysis of quantitative information such as the
number of volunteers over the course of the VCA,
number of training sessions, etc. However, this
type of quantitative data may not tell you what is
happening differently as a result of the number
of people trained.
The point is to have some means of measuring the changes that
VCA has created and to ensure that these are documented. The
results will serve the NS to implement changes based on solid
evidence and it will certainly help when looking to donors for
funds to support the programmes and projects resulting from
information gathered during the VCA.
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Field testing:
Putting into practice
what you have learned
As noted, much time needs to be dedicated to the preparation
phase. It’s like painting a house: 75 per cent of the time is cleaning the walls, covering furniture and buying and preparing the
materials. Only 25 per cent of the time is actually painting.
However, you are still not ready to go into a community and start
organizing activities and asking questions. You need a bridge
between the preparation phase and the implementation phase. In
other words, you need to practise what has been learned. You need
field testing.
Field testing consists of doing a practice run. You can test out new
skills and knowledge and then analyse what worked best, what
didn’t and how you can improve things. Field testing is not done
in the community where the actual VCA will take place, but normally in a community that the branch already knows well and
which is willing to help out. But be very careful not to raise expectations in the practice community. Everyone must understand
what you are doing and
how it will help the Red
Cross Red Crescent to do
better work to reduce
vulnerability.
National Society
participants in a VCA
training session test the
tools they have learned
to use in field practice.
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In some cases you may not be able to field test the VCA in a community. But this does not mean that you should not test at all.
Alternatives include interviewing family members or other Red
Cross Red Crescent volunteers or setting up a simulation exercise
in order to practise.
Organizing a field test will mirror what you will need to do for the
“real” VCA, including the distribution of tasks. All members
should attend a planning meeting to address the following:
■ Who will act as the overall leader/spokesperson for the day?
■ Who will contact a potential community and explain the purpose of the field test?
■ Organizing an orientation session about the community for
VCA members.
■ When is the best time to meet with the community (daytime,
evening, weekend)?
■ What will be the agenda or order of the day?
■ What methods will you use and who will do each one (formation of teams)?
■ What materials will be needed (tape, flipchart paper, etc.)?
■ What questions will be asked and to whom (interviews, focus
groups, etc.)?
■ Duration of the exercise (timelines).
■ Logistics (make up a check list):
■ space;
■ transportation;
■ buying materials;
■ communications;
■ first-aid kit;
■ a map of the community (does one exist?);
■ lunch/snacks or refreshments for community members (if
you decide to provide them);
■ identification (to identify yourselves as Red Cross Red
Crecent volunteers – bibs, hats, Red Cross Red Crecent
identity card, etc.).
■ Emergency plan.
■ How will you thank the community? A return visit? A letter?
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How to do a VCA
Figure 4 is a sample VCA schedule. Remember that some interviews and other activities can be done separately on different days
if necessary.
Figure 4.
Example of a VCA schedule
08:00
Pick up team members
09:00
Arrival in the community
09:15
Introduction to community
■ Explain purpose of the day
■ Who is present?
■ What is going to happen?
Schedule
■ Division of group according to arrangements
made by the community
09:45–10:45
Visit two focus groups (women, factory workers, etc.)
Interview key informant (doctor, teacher, village
elder, etc.)
Transect walk and focused direct observation
Problem tree
11:00–12:00
Mapping exercise with group of ten people
■ Historical profile/visualization with group
of youth and seniors
■ Seasonal chart
12:00
Lunch. Discussion on progress, direct observation.
(Remember you may have to provide lunch and/or
refreshments for some participants and certainly for
the volunteers)
13:00–14:00
Household assessment/neighbourhood vulnerability
Assessing the capacity of people’s organizations
15:00
Thank community
15:30
Leave community
Note: further key informant interviews will take place during
the week following the VCA day.
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Once you have completed the field test, hold a debriefing to think
about the field test.
Box 17 Reflecting on the experience
of a field test
The organizers/trainers should address the following
issues with the group:
■ How did people feel? Were they nervous? Was it
hard to talk with the community members? Did they
understand what you were doing? Were they
approachable? What can be done better to make
yourselves and the community more comfortable?
■ What worked? Why?
■ What didn’t work? Why?
■ Were the tools appropriate given the target population?
■ Did the tools provide the information you wanted?
If not, what changes do you need to make?
■ How did the organization of the day go?
■ Were the logistics adequate?
Based on the information you get from the debriefing, the overall
plan should be appropriately modified. Logistics should be sorted
out and the choice of research tools determined, as team members
will have a better idea of what methods they feel most comfortable using. At this point, the team should systematize, analyse and
interpret the data (see page xxx).
The team is now ready to do the VCA.
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Implementation
phase
VCA day
After the planning, the training, the practice and the preparation,
you’re finally ready to implement the VCA in the community.
This should be an exciting day – a day that will have implications
on the way the National Society and the specific branches work
with communities to reduce vulnerabilities in a direct manner. It
is the beginning of real community work.
In fact, you have already done a VCA. You can use the same
checklist prepared for the field test – although you may be modified it according to suggestions made at the debriefing exercise.
What you are going to do now is simply put into practice what
you have learned. And remember to have fun.
Just in case you think you may need it, here is an additional
checklist to make sure everything is ready and everybody is prepared:
■ Good preparation is a “must”.
■ Make sure everybody knows how the day will unfold and what
will happen.
■ Be flexible – expect the unexpected and be ready to deal with
it creatively.
■ Make sure you have a complete list of resources required and
that the money has been received early enough for you to get
everything ready.
■ VCA team members need to be prepared for every activity and
familiar with every tool.
■ Ensure that the timing of activities is appropriate (not too
intense) and that breaks are scheduled.
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■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Make sure all tema members have a good night’s sleep the night
before!
Be familiar with the composition of the communities before
implementing the VCA.
Have all background data ready (assessment tools, secondary
data, etc.).
Ask for help well in advance if you need it. Support is always
available from the International Federation’s delegations and
from sister National Societies.
Ensure that all relevant information is shared and explained to
community leaders, who should represent as many groups in
the community as possible.
Ensure that facilitators and team members remain humble and
treat people with respect and that material and information is
conveyed in a simple manner so that everybody understands.
Use visual techniques for people who cannot read or write.
Ensure adequate facilities for carrying out the VCA.
Plan for follow-up, monitoring and evaluation in order to
ensure permanent commitment from and to the community.
Use community members to help with this task.
Understand and respect the culture and customs of the communities.
Think about working with children in the community. But
don’t forget that you must get prior consent from their
families and follow the protocol identified in session 11 of
the VCA toolbox publication.
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Analysis phase
After having gathered information in the course of the VCA or
field-test day, what should you do with it? In many ways, this is
when the real work begins. Remember that the objective of the
VCA is to collect information so that it can be used by branches,
communities and other partners to develop programmes and projects which will reduce vulnerability.
The tasks described below should be practised as part of the fieldtesting exercise. Team members should be adequately trained in:
■ systematizing data;
■ interpreting and drawing conclusions from the data; and
■ developing recommendations for the future.
Systematizing, analysing
and interpreting the data
Once you have collected the data, you need to put it into a format
that will allow you to better analyse and interpret it. This is called
systematizing the data. You need to put the large quantity of raw
data into charts and clean up diagrams and drawings so that they
are easily understood.
Once the data has been systematized, it can then be shown to all
team members so that they can see what it says about the community’s vulnerabilities, capacity, etc. This is called “talking to the
data”. You must analyse and interpret what the data is telling you.
This process takes time and team members’s skills will improve with
practice. It is essential that the team include one or two members
from the community. They know their own reality best and are able
to clarify issues and put them into context – something outsiders are
not always able to do. They have the right to be involved because
any resulting interventions will have a direct impact on their lives.
However, try to have the community select people that have the
skills and time to participate in what can be quite a difficult process.
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Putting systemized VCA data on walls for analysis. The visual
approach to understanding data facilitates group thinking and
ownership.
If team members’ experience of analysing raw data is limited, it
may be useful to ask for support from VCA mentors, other people in your National Society or from an International Federation’s
delegation. People who have received formal VCA training understand how to make sense out of the information. If, however, you
used a number of questionnaires, it is essential that somebody
skilled in quantitative data analysis help with the design of the
questionnaire and the interpretation of the results.
When looking at the data, try to ensure that what you are interpreting is in fact what is actually happening in the community
and is consistent with your objectives. If the focus is on disaster
preparedness, you will be seeking to better understand vulnerability and capacities related to natural disasters within the community and how they have been changing over time. Normally, other
topics do not arise until the planning process when community
members begin to prioritize issues. One way of doing this is to
study the data and list all of the vulnerabilities and capacities you
see. You can then decide if the information derived from other
methods used during the VCA support or reject your observations. You should generally look for at least three sources to support your interpretation. This is called triangulation and gives
your observations and conclusions credibility.
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How to do a VCA
Figure 5
53
Bringing different sources
of data together
Triangulating different data sources results in more valid
information
Community
resource map
Seasonal
charts
Institutional
chart
Transect walk
Triangulation
Community
hazard/risk map
Triangulation
Quantitative
statistical
data
Historical
timeline
Triangulation:
Different sources of information
about community risks and hazards,
local capacities and recommendations
for action
Community focus
group discussion
Venn
diagram
Triangulation
Secondary
data
Semi-structured
interviews with key
informants
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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
The data also allows you to make conclusions on why this situation exists. For example, you may see from various sources that
villagers living below a steep cliff made of loose rock are in a highrisk area. While they understand this, they continue to live there.
Other information gathered may indicate that all other land was
bought up by companies or other people and the villagers have
nowhere else to live that is in close enough proximity to potential
employment. You may also conclude that the situation became
worse after a railway was built on top of the cliff, which affected
its stability. The risk was further increased by erosion caused by
people felling trees in order to use the wood for cooking or
because of more frequent heavy rainfall, possibly due to global climate change. So you have a large amount of information that you
need to organize and, with the other team members, take the time
to look at, think about and come up with reasons as to why situations exist.
Once you have analysed and interpreted the data, you can base
your understanding of the community’s situation on coherent evidence. You can also use the information to plan risk-reduction
programmes and activities – although this will be done with community members during the planning phase of the process.
See the VCA toolbox publication
for detailed information and
instruction on systematizing and
validating information.
Working together in Caribbean
National Societies in 2004 to
turn data into findings and
recommendations.
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How to do a VCA
Returning information
to the community
Data analysis and interpretation are not complete until they are
validated by the community. The VCA team is responsible for going
back to the community with the information, not only for validation
but to share findings with them. After all, the information and
analysis is about their community. In addition, community members
understand their own situations better than anybody from outside.
They are in the best position to confirm your conclusions or to
point out mistakes you may have made.
Nevertheless, there has to be a balance between community perceptions of risk (which may give priority to hazards such as road
accidents, disease and water supply, but not to major natural hazards) and the National Society’s understanding of situations based
on larger-scale risk assessment and mapping, including broader
trends such as large-scale deforestation, changes in river runoff
due to increasing irrigation or climate change. This must be
linked to the VCA to prepare people for both local disasters and
larger-scale risks (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, increasing risks due
to climate change and other risks that communities may feel are
beyond them). This is why using secondary information sources is
important when intepreting primary data.
When you go back to the community, make sure that the
information you pass on to them is presented in a format that is
accessible to everybody. Use visual aids and appropriate language.
Your presentation should be dynamic, but should also give
community members the opportunity to voice their opinions and
ask questions. Take accurate notes so that the conclusions can be
modified. Remember that community members were part of the
analysis and interpretation team so it may be more appropriate that
they present the information. However, all VCA team members
should participate. It may be worthwhile to have them return the
information to the specific groups they worked with during the
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VCA. This will also help to build ongoing relations between the
branch and the community and will facilitate the planning and
implementation of resulting projects.
You now have baseline data that has been approved by all those
involved in the VCA. Baseline data is necessary to measure the
impact of any projects that are implemented. By comparing this
data with information collected once the project has been completed, you will be able to demonstrate that the activities to reduce
vulnerability and build capacity have had a positive impact on the
lives of community members.
One other point to keep in mind is that community members
may now ask you – once again – what is going to happen next.
You may have already explained several times that the next step is
to introduce and organize the planning process. But talk it over
with the community again (and as many times as necessary) so
that everything is clear.
Remember that VCA requires continuous analysis. As more
information becomes available, volunteers and community members
need to ensure that the conclusions they came to and the resulting
recommendations are constantly reviewed, updated and
disseminated.
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Action planning:
transforming
vulnerabilities
into capacity
The data collection and analysis process may have formally ended,
but that does not mean that working with the community is finished. In fact the real work now begins – planning actions with
the community to reduce risk and increase capacity. Figure 2
(page xxx) showed the VCA process in its first stage, assessment.
From Figure 6 below, you can see that you are now at the next step
of the cycle, the programming planning process.
Figure 6
The planning cycle: programming
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This guide introduces the elements of planning and developing
projects, but its purpose is not to explain how to facilitate a comprehensive community planning exercise. However, several other
documents exist to help you with this process. They include:
■ Participatory community development; 5
■ Make the change; 6
■ Project planning process; 7
■ Toolkit for Community Risk Assessment and Action Planning. 8
Community members must always participate actively in translating data into recommendations and then planning potential projects. The Red Cross Red Crescent branch may be a partner in
resulting projects, but the communities themselves are mainly
responsible for any actions undertaken, so they have the right to
be involved in making the decisions. Remember that any projects
arising from the VCA process will have a direct impact on the
community. It’s up to you to ensure that it is a positive one!
Box 18 Key challenge
During the analysis and planning process, the facilitators
(volunteers and staff) need to be as open as possible to
what the community has to say. They should try to avoid
“leading” the community to adopt results and actions
based on Red Cross Red Crescent needs or capacity.
This is especially important, because, as has been
repeated in this series of publications, the priority of the
communities may not be related to disaster management
and could, therefore, be beyond the scope or capacity
of the Red Cross Red Crescent.
International Federation. Participatory community development. Geneva: International
Federation, date???. check
International Federation Trinidad and Tobago subregional office. Make that change –
Community-based disaster management. Trinidad and Tobago: International Federation, 2003.
7
International Federation. Project planning process. Geneva: International Federation, 2002.
check date
8
ProVention Consortium. (2005) Toolkit for Community Risk Assessment and Action Planning.
Geneva: ProVention Consortium, 2005. Available at:
http://www.proventionconsortium.org/CRA_toolkit.htm
5
6
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VCA experience worldwide has already shown that working
together with communities to identify “transformative” actions to
reduce vulnerabilities has been successful and well accepted by
both the branches and the communities themselves. Planning
these actions is a strong motivating factor for community
members. After all, people want to create better lives for
themselves and their neighbours if they are given the opportunity
and support to do so.
When a community actively participates in the process of
analysing and transforming their vulnerabilities into capacities,
their perception of the risks they face is increased. In those cases,
tangible support to the communities can be offered by the
National Societies. First aid training, early warning microprojects, development of community disaster plans, including
preparedness and response, can all result from the VCA and
community planning process.
Deciding on the best course
of action
In reality, the participatory planning process began when you
analysed and interpreted the data. Together, the community and
Red Cross Red Crescent branch should now determine what the
best course of action is. Several things are critical if this process is
to work properly, including:
■ The facilitators must understand the tool well.
■ Community members must fully understand and agree on the
definitions of the various terms used.
■ The facilitators must recognize that not everybody in a
community will agree on what priorities are and how things
should be done. What you are trying to do is connect sectors of
communities, not divide them. You should refer to the Better
Programming Initiative (BPI) in order to become familiar with
how to bring communities together and find solutions, rather
than cause problems and do more harm than good. It is essential
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that facilitators are skilled in addressing potential conflicts that
may surface during the planning process. The VCA training guide
publication in this series gives more information about BPI.
If this exercise is done properly, its results will be of significant
value to the overall planning process as they are directly related to
the community and the issues they face.
The first step is for the community to reach a consensus on the
priority problems, issues or hazards identified through the VCA
process. This can be done through a ranking process (see TRS 19
in the VCA toolbox publication) based on the most urgent, critical
or immediate problems and on the issues most often voiced by
community members.
Once the priority problems, issues or hazards have been
established, the community needs to look at:
■ How each of the problems, issues or hazards affects the
community and why.
■ What type of vulnerabilities exist in relation to each of the
problems, issues or hazards.
This can be done through the following exercise:
■ Divide into groups according to the problems, issues or hazards
identified. Each group should do the same tasks but relate
them to the specific problem, issue or hazard that they are
dealing with. Each group then:
■ lists all potential risks and impact that they identify in relation to the problem, issue or hazard. Make sure that all types
of risk or impact are included (structural, non-structural,
social, economic, etc.);
■ identifies vulnerabilities in the community with relation to
the problem, issue or hazard they have identified. What
makes people vulnerable?
■ reflects on both existing capacities in the community and
required capacities needed to face or minimize the identified
problem, issue or hazard;
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■
■
61
lists the community’s immediate needs if the identified
problem, issue or hazard affects the community; and
lists all mitigation actions that could be taken to face the
problem, issue or hazard and avoid the risks. Fin puces
All responses should be placed in table like Table 2 below.
Table 2
Problem/
issue/
hazard
Template for recording information
about problems, risks, capacities,
needs and possible mitigating
actions
Potential
risk
Vulnerabilities
Capacities
Immediate
needs
Mitigation
actions
1
1.1
1.2
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.2
1
2
3
1
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
3
This exercise helps the community to begin the process of
clarifying what is involved in taking a specific problem, issue or
hazard, identifying all the associated implications and then
considering what could be done to mitigate the effects. In order
to ensure the exercise is successful, the facilitators should make
sure that everybody understands what the different terms mean
(refer to session 3 in the VCA training guide).
Based on the information generated through the above exercise,
participants can begin to refine their analysis and build concrete
actions that will transform vulnerabilities into capacities.
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By doing this, communities increase their level of ownership and
begin to understand how they themselves can undertake transformative actions based on the capacities that they already have.
Have participants, in groups, list the vulnerabilities associated
with one of the various problems/issues/hazards and identify a
minimum of three concrete actions that would transform these
vulnerabilities into capacities. The following example of a chart
can be used to complete the task.
Table 3
Problem/
issue/hazard
Vulnerabilities
Template: transforming
vulnerabilities identified by
participants into capacities
Actions to transform vulnerabilities
into capacities
Vulnerability 1
a)
b)
c)
Vulnerability 2
a)
b)
c)
The next stage of the process is to refine these actions further and
to assess, in detail, how realistic each action is and what is needed
to implement each one. Explain to the participants that they are
going to analyse the mechanisms for ensuring that they can
undertake the suggested actions. Ask them to assess each action
they identified in the previous exercise, according to the following
CIT (change, influence, transformation) criteria:
■ Can the action be implemented by those at risk for immediate
change?
■ Is the action beyond the capacity of those at risk to change
themselves but which they could influence with the support of
others and thus lead to change over the medium term?
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■
63
Is the action linked to fundamental social and/or structural
transformation requiring a long-term strategy to be looked at
in the future?
As they work through the exercise, participants must consider
which criteria they used to choose the actions. They should take
into account that not all solutions are equally beneficial and some
are more difficult to achieve than others. These “supplementary”
criteria could include, for example, power relations, gender concerns, culture, increased income, reduced risk, skills available,
environmental themes, external factors, etc.
The proposed solutions should then be recorded in a chart such
as Table 4 below. Explain clearly to the participants that they need
to decide whether the actions they have identified contribute to
prevention, preparedness or mitigation, and record them appropriately in the chart. The type of problems, issues or hazards they
are addressing does not matter – the process is equally appropriate if the issue is floods or health problems such as HIV (see
Tables 10–13 below). It may be necessary to undertake exercises
to help the community understand the difference between these
three terms (see session 3 in the VCA training guide).
Table 4
Do actions contribute
to prevention, preparedness
or mitigation?
Actions
Problem/issue/hazard 1:
Vulnerability 1:
Problem/issue/hazard 1:
Vulnerability 2:
Prevention
CIT
Preparation CIT Mitigation CIT
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Participants then define realistic solutions and develop implementation plans. They should focus on those actions that have been
identified with either a “C” or an “I”, which are the actions that
the community can address with limited reliance on outside support and which can be accomplished in the short to medium
term. For each action, the participants need to ask the following
questions:
■ Can this be undertaken immediately?
■ Does it require resources?
■ Can we find the necessary resources ourselves? If yes, how?
■ Does it require technical support? If so, from where?
When explaining the task, it is important to place special emphasis
on whether:
■ these actions could be initiated with resources already available;
■ initiating these actions can help mobilize other resources; or
■ external resources are needed.
Getting realistic about planning and not creating unrealistic
expectations in the community.
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Depending on the answers, the participants must determine how
– if the solutions they propose require external finances – they will
acquire what they need (for example, using creative ideas such as
raffles, parties, collections, etc). Also, if the action requires specific skills, are these available within the community and if not,
where they will find them? This will help community members to
focus on the things they can do immediately to helpmitigate risks.
Table 5 below is an example of the sort of chart you should use to
complete this final phase of the planning process.
Table 5
Actions
Template for “doable” actions
Can be
solved
immediately
Requires
financing
Can we find
the resources
ourselves?
How?
Yes
No
Short term
Medium term
Long term
Below are two actual examples of charts completed by a community in the Caribbean. The first relates to natural disasters and the
second to HIV. They show that the process is adaptable and
appropriate for all problems, issues or hazards identified by the
community members.
Technical
support
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Flood
Potential
risk
■
The river floods
over the banks
affecting homes
in the vicinity.
Example chart from
the Caribbean: flood
Vulnerabilities
■
■
■
Homes become
water-logged
at ground level.
■
Household
equipment is
damaged.
■
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Table 6
Problem/
issue/
hazard
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Most vulnerable
people (elderly
and very young)
lose their lives.
■
More mosquitoes
can breed in the
area where river
is blocked,
increasing risk
of malaria.
■
Flooding in
homes results in
drinking-water
sources becoming
contaminated.
■
Drinking
contaminated
water results in
diarrhoea in
young children.
Poor
infrastructure.
Poor
agricultural
practices.
■
Poor
drainage.
■
Poor
sanitation.
■
Lack of
agricultural
supplies.
Capacities Immediate
needs
■
Training.
■
Food.
■
Skilled
personnel.
■
Housing.
■
Sanitation
facilities.
■
Storage
facilities.
■
Evacuation
plan.
Mitigation
actions
■
Retention
walls.
■
Cleaning
up
rubbish.
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Table 7
Flood: vulnerabilities
and capacities
Problem/
issue/hazard
Flood
Vulnerabilities
Actions to transform vulnerabilities
into capacities
Poor
infrastructure
1.Advocate for enforcement of building codes.
2. Clean and maintain drains.
3. Request funds for proper and improved
infrastructure.
4. Request proper zoning and allocation
of farm land.
1. Construct sealed storage for seeds.
2. Pre-arrange for supplies, so they are
accessible immediately.
3. Plant crops with high water tolerance.
4. Construct beds/drains to manage flow.
Poor
agricultural
practices
Table 8
67
Flood: classing actions as prevention, preparation or mitigation
Actions
Prevention CIT Preparation CIT Mitigation CIT
1. Advocate for enforcement
of building codes.
2. Clean and maintain drains.
3. Request funds for proper and
improved infrastructure.
4. Request proper zoning and
allocation of farm land.
X
I
X
I
1. Construct sealed storage
for seeds.
2. Pre-arrange for supplies,
so they are accessible
immediately.
3. Plant crops with high water
tolerance.
4. Construct beds/drains to
manage flow.
X
C
X
X
C
I
X
X
C
C
X
X
C
I
X
X
C
C
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Table 9
Flood: what resources are
required?
Actions
Can the action
be implemented
immediately
(short-term) or
are they more
medium or long
term?
Does
the action
require
financing?
Clean and
maintain
drains
Yes.
Short
to medium
term.
Yes.
Yes.
Construct
sealed
storage
for seeds
Yes.
Longer term
HIV
■
■
■
Poverty
Reduction
in the work
force.
Increase in
health-care
costs.
Yes.
Municipality,
NGOs.
Yes.
Use local skills (design
estimate).
■ Land donation for site.
■ Seek donations for
material.
■ Volunteer labour.
Yes.
Municipality,
NGOs,
private
construction
firms.
Example chart from
the Caribbean: HIV
Vulnerabilities
Potential
risk
■
■
■
■
Does
the action
require
technical
support?
Yes.
■ Volunteers.
■ Own tools.
■ Training people
to clean drains.
■ Seek donations from
stores.
■
Table 10
Hazard
Can the community
find the resources
themselves? How?
What is needed?
Ignorance
Discrimination
and stigma.
Economics.
Poor access to
health care.
Capacities
■
■
■
■
Peer
educators.
Ability to
change.
Awareness
programmes.
Open media.
Mitigation
actions
Immediate
needs
■
■
■
Affordable
treatments.
Support to
families.
Anti-stigma
education.
■
Education.
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Table 11
HIV: vulnerabilities and capacities
Problem/
issue/hazard
HIV
Actions to transform vulnerabilities
into capacities
Vulnerabilities
■
■
■
Ignorance.
Discrimination
/stigma.
Poor access to
health care and
counselling
services.
■
■
■
■
■
■
Table 12
■
■
■
■
Education and awareness campaigns with
teenagers, parents, village councils, religious
leaders, teachers, etc.
Train people to provide counselling services.
Approach government for additional healthcare funds.
Approach regional and international agencies
that fund health projects.
Ensure better access to testing facilities.
Seek human and social service support for
families with HIV/AIDS members.
HIV: classing actions as prevention, preparation or mitigation
Actions to transform
vulnerabilities into
capacities
■
69
Education and awareness
campaigns with teens,
parents, village councils,
religious leaders, teachers,
etc.; train people to provide
counselling services.
Approach government for
additional health-care funds.
Approach regional and
international agencies that
fund health projects.
Ensure better access to
testing facilities.
Seek out human and social
service support for families
with HIV/AIDS members.
Prevention CIT Preparation CIT Mitigation CIT
X
X
C
X
X
C
X
X
C
X
X
C
X
X
I
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Awareness
campaign
Access
to testing
facilities
Counselling
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Table 13
Actions
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HIV: what resources are required?
Can the action
Does
be implemented the action
immediately
require
(short-term)
financing?
or are they
more medium
or long term?
Yes.
Short to medium
term
Yes
No.
Medium
to long term
Yes
No.
Medium term
Yes
Can the
community find
the resources
themselves?
How? What
is needed?
Yes
■ People
■ Handouts and
posters
Not all
Government must
provide facilities,
equipment and
staff.
■
Not all
Counsellors.
■ Location.
■ Administrative
support.
■
Does
the action
require
technical
support?
No
■ There are already
trained people.
■ There are preprepared
handouts.
Yes
Medical staff.
■ Laboratory staff.
■ Administrative
staff.
■
Yes
Counsellors.
■
The actions identified are in fact recommendations that can be
turned into projects. For example, the community and the
National Society may come up with the following specific projects
based on the actions identified in the flood and HIV examples
presented above.
■ Flood
■ Project 1: Flood awareness programme for communities and
schools.
■ Project 2: Advocacy campaign for changing building codes.
■ Project 3: Community cleaning of all drains.
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71
HIV
■ Project 1: HIV peer support programme.
■ Project 2: Advocacy campaign aimed at government to
ensure universal access to testing facilities as well as affordable treatment programmes.
■
Whatever the project, a clear and precise plan of action then needs
to be developed and agreed upon. This should include all steps,
the resources needed and who is responsible for ensuring the tasks
are completed (see Table 14 below). Much of this information has
already been done. The task now is to systematize the information
into a format that is clear and easy to understand.
Table 14
Information needed for
the planning matrix
Specific activity
Who will ensure
it is done?
Resources
needed
1
2
Creating a management timeline (see Table 15 below) is both
helpful and efficient. It will help you to phase the roles and activities of different people and groups in a way that saves time and
better ensures that a sequential timeline is followed towards
achieving the goal. In the example below, four individuals of
groups are involved in ensuring sensitization in achieved.
Timeline
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Table 15
Week 1
National
Society
Secretary
General
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Management timeline
Week 2
Write to Ministry
of Health, civil
defence and local
authorities
Week 3
Courtesy meeting
with counterparts
from civil defence,
Ministry of Health
and local authorities
VCA
Sensitize National
coordinator Society management and branch
officials
Contact Ministry
Set up sensitization
of Health, civil
sessions for followdefence and local ing week
authorities to make
appointments.
Branch
leaders
Sensitize local staff Sensitize local comand volunteers
munity groups
Local staff
and
volunteers
Participate
in sensitization
Week 4
Participate
in sensitzation.
Sensitize representatives from
Ministry of Health,
civil defence and
local authorities
Assist in sensitizing local communities
and selecting community focus groups.
Clarifying expectations.
The VCA process can help connect wider issues and act as a tool
for improving an integrated approach to community work.
However, National Societies need to recognize that they cannot
do everything, nor is everything their responibility or that of the
communities. While the technical departments of your National
Society should be mobilized to help meet the objectives of proposed projects, there will be instances where they do not have the
capacity to help and you will need to look for support outside the
Red Cross Red Crescent and the community. In that case, you
must ask yourself two questions: Who can help you achieve the
objectives? Who should be responsible for issues that fall outside
of the Red Cross Red Crescent’s mandate or capacity? This is
where the building of strategic partnerships is essential. You,
therefore, need to prepare on how better to work with other institutions and partner with communities.
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VCA helps to identify the gaps and limitations in Red Cross Red
Crescent work and to show the need to form partnerships with
other organizations (see TRS 17 in the VCA toolbox publication).
From the beginning of the VCA, the National Society needs to
talk with other organizations whose mandate, knowledge and
skills complement the activities of the Red Cross Red Crescent, so
that it can call on them when communities prioritize issues that
fall outside of its own expertise. This is not only good planning
practice, but it provides an important service to communities with
whom the National Society works and is a way for the Red Cross
Red Crescent to advocate for change with communities and with
those who are responsible for supporting risk reduction. It should
be seen as an opportunity to provide better programming to communities and for learning new things.
As the examples above demonstrate, the community may not have
enough resources to build structures such as retention walls.
Support is, therefore, required – support that takes the form of
advocacy, so that government authorities respond to the need.
The community and the National Society need to share the VCA’s
results with government and other organizations. To do this, it is
essential that you also involve other partners in the planning
stages (see Table 15 above).
You must always be prepared for the unexpected. Community work
is complex and always brings surprises – which is normal given that
you are trying to improve community life. For the communities
involved, this is real life, not simply an exercise or a project. All
activities – whether in first aid, food security, community care or
health – should be linked to the task of reducing vulnerability and
building capacity, and mutually reinforcing. When this work is
carried out with the involvement of people at the grass-roots level
through community-based investigations, it is a very powerful basis
for change.
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Indicators
All risk-reduction projects need indicators to help evaluate the
impact of interventions. But for the indicators to be of use, it is
essential to have baseline data. You obtain baseline data through
the VCA’s various data collection activities – in other words the
systematized information coming from all the tools you have used.
Baseline data can include different types of information depending
on its intended purpose. For example, the process of creating baseline
data for disaster management is explained in detail in TRS 2 in the
VCA toolbox publication, including the types of information that
need to be collected. If health promotion is the VCA’s objective,
then you will need additional types of information. Once you have
baseline data, you can compare and evaluate the disaster or risk
situation before and after implementing community interventions
or projects (see also page xxx above).
This data gives you an overall picture of the situation in a
community both before and after risk-reduction projects have been
implemented. This information is very useful in showing
communities and donors the impact and value of the risk-reduction
interventions that the National Society has undertaken in a
participatory manner local communities.
Specific indicators also need to be developed for each intervention. But remember that in some instances – for example, in
awareness programmes about home or school safety and basic first
aid in an earthquake-prone community – it will be difficult to
measure impact because the nature of the hazard is unpredictable.
However, you can measure programme impact to some extent by
undertaking simulation exercises in which communities test their
newly acquired knowledge.
If the community experiences annual events such as flooding, it is
much easier to design indicators and measure impact because it is
known that the event will occur. Taking the VCA planning exer-
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75
cise for flood risk (see Tables 6–9 above) as an exmaple, you can
see that, as a result of the various VCA tasks, the community has
identified the following as effects of the hazard:
■ The river overflows its banks at the point where it is blocked,
affecting homes in the vicinity.
■ Homes are flooded at ground level.
■ Household equipment is damaged.
■ Some of the most vulnerable people (the elderly and the very
young) lose their lives.
■ More mosquitoes can breed in the area where river is blocked,
increasing risk of malaria.
■ Flooded houses results in drinking-water sources becoming
contaminated.
■ Drinking contaminated water results in diarrhoea in young
children and some of them die.
Several actions were identified to address these issues. Below are
some of the activities (plus a few new ones) along with indicators
that can be used to measure impact.
Table 16
Activity
Creation of
an evacuation
plan.
Credibility: activities,
indicators and evidence
Indicator
The village’s
evacuation plan
results in a reduction
of mortality.
Clearing
The clearing and
blocked drains. cleaning of blocked
drains results in less
flooding in homes.
Evidence
Impact after disaster can be measured by
identifying how many people were killed in the
previous year before the evacuation plan was
implemented.
The number of homes flooded in the flood season
after the drains have been cleaned and cleared
can be compared with the number of households
affected the year before.
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Indicator
Evidence
Health
awareness
campaign.
There is a reduction in The local clinic can compare the number of cases
of children with diarrhoea who have attended the
the number of cases
clinic.
of diarrhoea in
children.
Mosquito
spraying
programme
initiated with
municipality.
The reduction in
mosquito breeding
grounds results in a
reduction of malaria
cases.
The local clinic can compare the number of cases
of malaria seen in the clinic.
Remember that identifying and measuring indicators allows you
and the community to show others, including donors and authorities, the impact of the planned interventions. This puts pressure
on authorities to take more action and provides opportunities to
implement more projects based on successes that can clearly be
demonstrated.
Box 19 Learning from experience:
VCA in the Solomon Islands
Planning monitoring and evaluation at the design stage
is vital. A case study of a VCA carried out in the
Solomon Islands in 2004 by the Solomon Islands Red
Cross noted: “The SIRC community projects have
attracted high praise, and in demonstrating the
feasibility of community-based work, there is no doubt
that very real gains were made as a result of the pilot
projects. However convincing the projects’ worth, it is
difficult to demonstrate their effectiveness in reducing
vulnerability because activities to monitor and evaluate
them were not clearly defined at the outset”. 9
International Federation Suva regional delegation. Solomon Islands: From assessment
to community actions. Geneva: International Federation, 2004, p. 16.
9
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Recommendations and
report writing
The final task of the actual VCA is for the team to sit down,
assemble all the activity reports, conclusions and plans (including
project recommendations) that have been developed with the
community during the project planning process. Together this
will form the final VCA report.
The VCA report should document the entire process but must be
concise and clear so that it will be read instead of sitting on a shelf.
The report should be submitted to National Society management
and the board for approval. Not only will approval give you the
freedom to share the report with others, but the process will mean
that senior management and the elected members of the board are
aware of what has been done. This will go a long way to making
VCA and community work an integrated and standard process in
the National Society, making it easier to organize a VCA in other
branches and in all technical departments. You should then present the findings of the report, in an appropriate format, to as
many interested groups as possible – the most important of these
groups, of course, is the community itself. Once the VCA
momentum has taken off, new opportunities to expand the
process will present themselves.
Remember to also disseminate the findings to the International
Federation’s regional or country delegations and to potential partners, government and others. The more people and organizations
that know about VCA, the more they will use it and, ultimately,
this will lead to less vulnerable communities. Proper exchange of
information can contribute to:
■ developing strategic alliances;
■ integrating initiatives and resources; and
■ better understanding of dividers and connectors.
Communities can only benefit when there is increased coordination, cooperation and participation among all actors.
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Key
message
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Be proud of the work
that has been done.
Returning to the planning matrix, below is a simple example of a
completed VCA plan. There is no need to create something complex. It is more important to have things written down in a way
that will help the VCA team ro remain organized and to monitor
progress.
Table 17
Phases
Preparation
phase
Activity
A sample “critical pathway”
for implementing your VCA
Who will
Resources
ensure it is
needed
done?
Week
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 8+12
■
Driving
force
■
Office
material,
presentation
X
X
■
Sensitization of
headquarters and
branches/creation
of management
committee/terms
of reference
Letter to regions
■
■
VCA guides
X
■
Develop budget
■
■
Procurement of
supplies for VCA
Selection and training
of VCA facilitators/
selection of
communities
■
Secretary
General
VCA
coordinator
VCA staff
■
■
■
Management committee and
coordinator
X
X
■
Space,
materials
X
X
X
X
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How to do a VCA
Phases
Activity
■
■
■
■
■
Implementation phase
■
■
Analysis
phase
■
■
■
Action
panning
phase
■
■
Who will
Resources
ensure it is
needed
done?
Collection and
■ Skilled
analysis of external/
members of
secondary data
VCA team
Preparation of tools
■ Man.
(translated and made
comm. and
community
coord.
appropriate)
Initial community visits )
)VCA team
Field testing day
)
VCA planning
Mobilization of
community
Data collection
■
Data entry, analysis
and interpretation of
data
Data report;
recommendations
Validation of results
with community
members
■
■
VCA team
VCA team,
statistics
consultant
VCA
coordinator,
VCA team
79
Week
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 8+12
X
■
Bibs/caps,
markers,
pens, paper,
transport
X
X
X
X
■
■
■
Bibs/caps,
markers,
pens, paper,
transport
Access to
computer,
prepare info
for
community
Markers,
pens, paper,
transport
Planning process with
the community
Preparation of final
report to management
committee and board
for approval
What next?
Once the report has been written and approved, the VCA process
is formally completed. It is time to disband the VCA structure and
management committee. The hope is that your National Society
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
will view the VCA process as something to include in all programmes and projects: linking local projects to global programmes.
Once VCA is accepted throughout the National Society, there will
be no need to have a formal society-wide structure. However,
management committees can be formed as new VCAs are carried
out in different branches. Each VCA will need at least a local
structure to make sure everything functions according to plan.
The VCA team is also responsible for sharing and linking what
they have done with other organizations and government.
Approved VCAs should also be sent to the International
Federation through its regional delegations, so that other National
Societies can learn from these valuable experiences through the
systematization and sharing of best practices. In most countries,
government has the overall responsibility for disaster management, in which the Red Cross Red Crecent is but one player,
albeit an important one. Having government support will
strengthen the credibility of the VCA. Also, working with the government at all levels will link the VCA’s local community-based
investigations to regional risk assessment and mapping of hazards
that extends beyond the locality and exceeds the capacity of local
communities. Advocacy for risk reduction on the basis of convincing VCAs is an important follow-up responsibility of the National
Society (at all levels) and in some cases at regional and international levels, of the International Federation.
You should also share your knowledge and skills with other organizations that work in community-based disaster management.
Remember that what you are trying to do is reduce risk in the
most vulnerable communities and if VCA helps to do that, then
you must share it. You will know that VCA is successful when all
organizations are using it and when they ask you to train their
staff and volunteers!
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Conclusion
All the activities you carry out in communities must be linked to
the task of reducing vulnerability and building capacity. This
work – whether in first aid, food security, community health or
disaster preparedness – can be mutually reinforcing. When carried
out with the involvement of people at the grass-roots level
through the use of community-based investigations, it is a very
powerful basis for change.
From the information you collect, analyse and interpret through
the VCA process, you can see what actions can be taken to reduce
risk. You can analyse whether each action is one of prevention,
preparedness or mitigation. You can determine whether you,
along with the community, can reduce the risk or if you need to
influence others, such as government, to take corrective steps.
Resources – and how the community, with Red Cross Red
Crescent help, can acquire what is needed – can be identified. All
this is part of a participatory planning process undertaken with
communities based on the information gathered during the VCA.
The better prepared you are to undertake serious community
work based on quality research, the more credibility you have with
authorities and, more significantly, with the community.
Implementing VCA is the first and one of the most important
steps.
Good luck in your work and enjoy what you do. You can now
move on to the VCA toolbox publication where you will learn
about doing research and test the actual information-gathering
tools.
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List of useful
web sites
Organization
Web site address
Description
ADPC
http://www.adpc.ait.ac.th
Asian Disaster Preparedness
Center
ADPC – ECE
http://www.adpc.ait.ac.th/ece
/info.html
Extreme Climate Events
Resources for Asia/Pacific
ADRC (Japan)
http://www.adrc.or.jp/top.asp
Asian Disaster Reduction
Center, Japan
American Red Cross/
http://www.preparenow.org/
Bay Area Resources
http://www.prepare.org/
Disaster preparedness
information
CIMH
http://www.cimh.edu.bb/
Caribbean Institute for
Meteorology and Hydrology
CDB
http://www.caribank.org/
Caribbean Development Bank
CDERA
http://www.cdera.org/
Caribbean Disaster
Emergency Response Agency
CDMHA
http://coe-dmha.org/
Center for Disaster Management
and Humanitarian Assistance
CEPREDENAC
http://www.cepredenac.org/
Coordinating Center for
Natural Disaster Preparedness
CRED
http://www.cred.be/
Center for Research on the
Epidemiology of Disasters
CRID
http://www.crid.or.cr/crid/
Indexen.htm
Regional Disaster Information
Center (Latin America)
http://www.southasiadisasters.
net/
Disaster Mitigation Institute,
Gujarat, India
American Red Cross:
Prepare.org
(Central America)
(Latin America)
DMI (India)
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83
Organization
Web site address
Description
EERI
http://www.eeri.org
Earthquake Engineering
Research Institute
FEMA for Kids
http://www.fema.gov/kids/
Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA),
USA – web site for children
FEWS
http://www.fews.net/
Famine Early Warning System
Network
GDIN
http://www.gdin-international
.org/links.html
Global Disaster Information
Network
Interaction
http://www.interaction.org/
American Council for
Voluntary International Action
Learning Resource
http://www.lrc.fema.gov
Online card catalogue
(sponsored by FEMA, USA)
http://www.colorado.edu/
hazards/
University of Colorado, USA
NDMC
http://www.drought.unl.edu/
index.htm
National Drought Mitigation
Center, University of
Nebraska, USA
OAS – NHP
http://www.oas.org/nhp/
Organization of American
States’ Natural Hazards
Project
OAS – CDMP
http://www.oas.org/en/cdmp/
Organization of American
States’ Caribbean Disaster
Mitigation Project
PAHO – PED
http://www.paho.org/disast
ers/
Pan American Health
Organization’s Preparedness
Programme
ProVention
http://www.proventionconsor
tium .org
Global coalition to reduce
disaster impacts
(California, USA)
Center
Natural Hazards
Center
Consortium
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The Fundamental Principles
of the International Red Cross
and Red Crescent Movement
Humanity
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, born of a desire
to bring assistance without discrimination to the wounded on the
battlefield, endeavours, in its international and national capacity, to prevent
and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found. Its purpose is to
protect life and health and to ensure respect for the human being. It
promotes mutual understanding, friendship, cooperation and lasting peace
amongst all peoples.
Impartiality
It makes no discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or
political opinions. It endeavours to relieve the suffering of individuals,
being guided solely by their needs, and to give priority to the most urgent
cases of distress.
Neutrality
In order to enjoy the confidence of all, the Movement may not take sides
in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious or
ideological nature.
Independence
The Movement is independent. The National Societies, while auxiliaries in
the humanitarian services of their governments and subject to the laws of
their respective countries, must always maintain their autonomy so that
they may be able at all times to act in accordance with the principles of the
Movement.
Voluntary Service
It is a voluntary relief movement not prompted in any manner by desire for
gain.
Unity
There can be only one Red Cross or Red Crescent Society in any one
country. It must be open to all. It must carry on its humanitarian work
throughout its territory.
Universality
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, in which all
societies have equal status and share equal responsibilities and duties in
helping each other, is worldwide.
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By coordinating international
disaster relief and encouraging
development support it seeks
to prevent and alleviate
human suffering.
The International Federation,
the National Societies and
the International Committee
of the Red Cross together
constitute the International
Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement.
84700/2 03/2006 E 1,000
The International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies promotes the humanitarian
activities of National Societies among
vulnerable people.