AKAH’s approach brings together scientific analysis and international best practice with deep community engagement. Our trained local volunteers and technical staff work in over 2,500 communities to make sure people have the knowledge, capacity and solutions to cope with the risks they face. We promote community-based disaster risk management informed by the best available data, helping communities implement plans and countermeasures adapted to their local context.

We apply international standards including the Core Humanitarian Standards and Sphere Standards to build professionalised and standardised preparedness and response capacity amongst our staff and the communities and local authorities with whom we work.

Risk Anticipation and Planning

We start by helping communities understand the risks and plan accordingly. Combining local knowledge and field surveys with geographic information system (GIS) data, satellite imagery and other remote sensing and geospatial data, we work with communities to complete a detailed Hazard, Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (HVRA) for their village or settlement. The HVRA maps risks and determines safe residential and economic zones, safe evacuation sites and high-risk areas based on a calculation of exposure and vulnerability to multiple types of hazards.

We then work with communities to use this data to develop disaster management and habitat plans. To date we have assessed nearly 2,500 settlements and helped nearly 1,800 communities develop village disaster management plans. These HVRAs are updated every three years or after any disaster incident with community participation to ensure that the plans are current and adapted to local communities.

We are expanding our assessment and monitoring capacity to address remote, valley-level and watershed level risks and have completed 13 valley level and 100 watershed assessments. We have mapped and actively monitor 37 remote hazards including glaciers and 15 high-altitude glacial lakes in the Baghlan and Badakhshan provinces of Afghanistan; in GBAO, Tajikistan; and in Gilgit, Chitral and Hunza in Pakistan.

Many of the areas where we operate have limited communications and transport infrastructure. Yet communications and access are vital for early warnings and safe evacuations before a disaster and timely response after a disaster.

We are working with local communities to provide access to fail-safe communications, maintain access roads and bridges, and provide alternative transportation options. Through these efforts, more than 80 percent of the communities we work in have access to two modes of communications.

Recognising that school children are particularly vulnerable but also can be effective messengers and agents of change in their families and communities, we implement a comprehensive School Safety Programme to mitigate disaster risk. The programme comprises both structural and non-structural elements: we retrofit, protect and reinforce school buildings; and promote awareness and safe practices addressing multiple natural hazards.

The programme covers over 1,000 schools and more than 100,000 students and teachers. Our School Safety Programme is aligned with global frameworks such as the Sendai Framework. It builds on the core pillars of UNISDR and Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES) to ensure safe school facilities; promote risk education and awareness in the curriculum; and support schools in disaster management and contingency planning. Our efforts have helped inform national and sub-national strategies and action plans including the Pakistan School Safety Framework (PSSF).

We have set up and maintain 19 early warning systems that cover almost 400 villages across Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, as well as a system for urban flood risk in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. We also upgraded the early warning system of the highly threatening Lake Sarez located in Bartang valley in Tajikistan. These systems cover multiple types of hazards and employ site-specific technologies to provide communities with timely and actionable warning of disaster risk.

To address the dual risks of natural hazards and climate change, we apply an ecosystem-based approach to disaster risk reduction (DRR). It uses nature-based solutions, in particular planting trees and vegetation and using local and low-carbon materials for structural mitigation wherever possible.

In Pakistan, we are working with the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan to help implement Pakistan’s Ten Billion Tree Tsunami, an ambitious nation-wide afforestation effort. We are providing technical advice to help the government select 300 sites in Gilgit-Baltistan for plantation to stabilise soil and slopes to protect settlements and critical infrastructure from landslides and other natural hazards.

Following a devastating flood in 2017 in Dasht-e-Dehkhaw in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, we are helping the local community to voluntarily relocate to a nearby safer site. To secure the new site, we and the local community planted 3,500 trees to help stabilise a dangerous slope and protect the village below from deadly avalanches and rockfalls.

In Tajikistan, we are working with government partners and Caritas to introduce a forest plantation model that integrates income generation opportunities with DRR benefits. The multipurpose plantation approach promotes diverse vegetation to protect against avalanche, landslide and flash flood risks.

Through large-scale and community-level projects such as these, we are helping vulnerable communities mitigate climate change and disaster risk.

ShakeOut Campaign

Since 2011, we have participated in the Great ShakeOut earthquake drill, a global initiative led by Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) to prepare communities with lifesaving techniques in case of an earthquake. The drill promotes personal preparedness and reinforces “Drop, Cover and Hold On” as best practice in the event of an earthquake. In 2020 over two million people across 20 countries participated in AKDN-led ShakeOut drills.

We promote awareness and participation in the campaign through staff, the communities served and through partnerships with government organisations, schools, and other AKDN and non-AKDN partners. The campaign is critical to spreading lifesaving information across vulnerable communities.