2017 – 2020 Project Overview
Support Project on Promotion of School Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (SDRRM) in Cebu Province (from April 2017)
Background:
SEEDS Asia has conducted the project to promote School Disaster Risk Reduction Education with Department of Education Region Ⅶ Office in Cebu Province from November 2014 to March 2017. Although the improvement of the abilities of students to deal with disasters is an essential pillar in respect of school disaster risk reduction (DRR), it is also important to build the capacity on school disaster risk reduction and management (SDRRM) such as training of school staffs responsible for DRR, school DRR planning, and preliminary discussion for emergency response in order to promote school safety further. Department of Education also understands the importance of the above, and had decided to organize School DRRM Team in each organization in the ordinance and distributed the manual for SDRRM. Although the framework reinforcement and system construction in recent years are progressing remarkably, the actual implementation at school level is still the objective to be pursued. Thus, JICA Grassroots Technical Cooperation Project “Support Project on Promotion of School Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in Cebu Province” has started succeeding the outcome of the preceding project on DRR Education so as to promote SDRRM.
Activities:
1. Training for School DRRM Instructing Team
Training for School DRRM Instructing Team will be conducted to DRRM coordinators of Department of Education Region Ⅶ Office and local DRRM officers at 10 division offices under the Region Ⅶ Office. “School DRR Management Operations Guideline” is to be prepared with those DRRM coordinators and DRRM officers and make it as a guideline for training sessions to be conducted at each school.
2. School Safety Inspection at pilot schools
School Safety Inspections are to be conducted at each ten pilot schools selected by each division office of Department of Education with the School DRRM Instructing Team received the training. It is aimed to improve learning environment as well as to promote DRR management at ordinary times.
3. Preparation of Emergency Response Manual
A manual regarding the capacity for response at the time of emergency—especially at the time of the occurrence of disasters—customized to each school situation and environment is to be prepared. The preparation of this manual needs the involvement of not only school staffs but also communities (barangay) since the move to evacuation shelters and response to evacuees from outside are required at the time of occurrence of disasters, in addition to the safety of staffs and students at schools.
4. Implementation of evacuation drills
Comprehensive evacuation drills of schools and communities will be conducted in order to review the effectiveness of the manual prepared and the objectives. The implementation of evacuation drills will lead to the evaluation of the effects of the DRR education of the preceding project and help strengthen the capacity of teachers on DRR. The details planned in the manual can be confirmed by actually conducting them, and this will help improve the manual.
5. Dispatching information
Seminars and workshops will be conducted to publicize and share the project achievement with those outside of the project area. The implementation of seminars and workshops is expected to help share the outcome of the project with central office and other regional offices of Department of Education so that the advanced admirable examples will be passed on to other areas, instead of holding the project outcome only within the project area.
This project is to utilize the Special Reserves for Regional Development and be conducted in collaboration with the Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education. It is planned to share the efforts on SDRRM made after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake with and provide technical advices to those in Philippines, with the aim to improve the capacity on SDRRM in the Philippines.