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Contents:

1. New Representative in ACT
2. New Representative for LWF Nepal
3. AZEECON Work-shops and trainings
4. A positive Review
5. Natural Disaster update
6. World Water Forum
7. SPHERE Project requests for proposals

1 New Representative in ACT

AZEECON now has a representative in the innermost circles of ACT. RDRS (Rangpur, Dinajpur Rural Service) Executive Director Kamaluddin Akbar was elected to the new ACT Emergency Committee for a period of two years 2003-2004. The Emergency Committee also elected Kamaluddin Akbar to the new Executive Committee for a period of four years, (2003-2006).

Mr Sushant Agrawal of CASA India was the other person from South East Asia elected to the Emergency Committee. The first meeting of the new ACT ExCom was held in Geneva in April 2003.

This was an opportunity for AZEECON to inform and be informed about thinking within ACT. Although time for the meetings will be limited the issues arising in AZEECON Summits, including relief stocking, disaster preparedness, quality control and co-ordination during appeals, among other, were aired.

2. New Representative for LWF Nepal

AZEECON welcomes Marceline Rozario, as the new LWF Representative for Nepal. Marceline, a MA in Social Welfare worked in various capacities in the Northern Bangladesh as well as in Dhaka, from the position of Project Administrator and finally as the Deputy Director of the Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), the then field programme of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) from July 1976 until December 1993 when he moved to Zambia to work with the LWF, Zambia Programme. He coordinated the Rural Community Development and Motivation (RCDM) Project for long nine years in the Eastern Province of Zambia until the end of November 2002. He decided not to have his contract for Zambia renewed and came back to his home country Bangladesh. He was offered the position of LWF Representative of Nepal in February 2003 which he accepted and started his work in Nepal on the 1st March 2003.

Marceline and Juliana have two daughters - Muriel and Leonie, both of them are currently pursueing higher studies in the United States. We wlecome them to the AZEECON family.
Marceline may be contacted by e-mail at rep@lws.wlink.com.np.

3. AZEECON Work-shops and trainings

• AZEECON International Risk Management Training/Workshop will take place on June 23-27, 2003, at the North Bengal Institute in Rangpur, Bangladesh. This international customized training is hosted by RDRS, Bangladesh and will be facilitated by Dr. Allen Armstrong from Scotland. The training will cover natural disaster, health - HIV/AIDS, and disasters from civil conflict. An expected output is a set of practical risk management guidelines for AZEECON country programs.
• LWS India is to host an Exposure, Exchange & Training Visit (EETV) during 8th – 12th December, 2003 with the Theme 'Community Based Disaster Preparedness'.
• LWF Cambodia will host the annual AZEECON Review and Planning Meeting, SPHERE Training and DIPECHO Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Exposure, Exchange & Training Visit (EETV) September 15-22, 2003.
• LWF Nepal with cooperation from NCA, will to hold a training workshop from 22 to 26 September 2003 in Kathmandu to formulate an HIV/AIDS policy for LWF Nepal and share technical skills and knowledge with the key implementers / managers.

The workshop will be facilitated by Dr. Marriette of India. LWF Geneva will also be requested to make the HIV/AIDS specialist (to be recruited soon) available as a resource person.

Since HIV/AIDS activities are part of all our AZEECON countries, NCA has agreed to accept one staff (policy level) each from India, Bangladesh and Cambodia attend, share, learn and contribute to the workshop.

4. A positive Review

AZEECONs performance in implementing CBDP Projects under the DIPECHO Programme of the European Union receives a positive review. The evaluation was financed by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) and carried out by independent consultants.

Summary:
The First DIPECHO Action Plan for South Asia was adopted in mid-2001 and covered five countries in the region: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The AZEECON Network implemented 3 Community Based Disaster Preparedness Projects through its members in Nepal (LWF), India (LWF) and Bangladesh (RDRS). The projects all started implementation in November 2001 and ended by October 2002. In mid-2002 ECHO decided to carry out an evaluation to assess the design and impact of the Action Plan, including individual assessments of the eight projects as well as an evaluation of the overall DIPECHO regional strategy itself.

Although the evaluation does not contain the specific assessments of each of the eight organisation, it is still possible to draw some lessons for the AZEECON members that participated in the DIPECHO programme.

The integrated approach of the AZEECON members is highly recommended and viewed as a crucial prerequisite for an impact at the community level beyond the mere one-year project period. The evaluation states that "...it is evident that the most successful projects evaluated under the Action Plan are those based on solid community development approaches where a broad cross-section of the beneficiary population participates in the process of vulnerability analysis and planning".

Further the evaluation state that "The experiences reviewed by the evaluation team highlight the fact that for highly vulnerable populations, disaster preparedness and management is closely linked with broader development efforts. This lesson also supports the argument for incorporating DP components into the design of mainstream development programmes.”

This is clearly in line with the approach adopted by the AZEECON members and further strengthens the justification towards back donors to include DP activities in the main development programmes.

Special credit was given to the LWS-India component of the programme as they managed to have the participatory approach to CBDP incorporated into the community approach of the Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority.

In terms of coverage and the number of people trained it also worth to note that the AZEECON members managed to reach 1,025,000 people - equal to 76% of the total coverage of all 8 DIPECHO projects - and that 9,436 persons were given training on CBDP - equal to 63% of the total of 15,078 persons trained. All this was accomplished with only 14% of the total funds for the entire DIPECHO programme. The evaluation in its full length can be found on the ECHO homepage:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/pdf_files/evaluation/2002/dipecho_south_asia.pdf

5. Natural Disaster update

India and Bangladesh:
The temperature in India, especially in Andhra Pradesh, shot up to 48-50 degrees Celsius with continuing severe drought. Over 800 people have died so far. In Bangladesh, which usually has a temperate climate, the mercury shot up to 38 degrees celsius while about 50 people died. The hot spell is likely to continue for another week in Bangladesh before the delayed monsoon rains begins to pour.

13 June 2003
Situation Report from LWS India
How the severe pre-monsoon heat wave is affecting the work of LWSI.
How LWSI is responding to the situation.

Severe heat wave and drought like conditions have gripped several states of India. Officially the death toll in Orissa is 14 but media reports put the number at 145. A few deaths have been reported from W. Bengal also. More than a thousand deaths have been reported from the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh in the south.

In the worst affected areas the average daytime temperature hovered between 45 and 48 degrees Celsius. Titlagarh in Orissa where LWSI is implementing rural development and drought relief operations recorded 50.1 degree Celsius, the highest in 60 years. Titlagrah is known as the hotspot of Orissa and had recorded 49.8 degree in 1998 when the state experienced one of the worst droughts in recent history. In places like Bankura in W. Bengal where LWSI is implementing rural development project, the temperature touched 47.3 degree Celsius, the highest recorded temperature in 75 years.

The ongoing LWSI rural development program and disaster preparedness program in Orissa and West Bengal includes several measures designed to minimize the impact of the excessive heat. Health education and awareness campaigns covering thousands of people have been held regularly to disseminate information on measures to prevent heat stroke, control diarrohea and other water borne diseases. Steps have been taken to promote the use of homemade oral re-hydration solution. Work patterns in our projects have been modified to avoid activities during the hottest part of the day.

According to reports available with LWSI, the entire region is experiencing an acute crisis for drinking water. Ponds, tanks and tube wells have dried up in most places. In some places like Bolangir in Orissa, government has organized mobile water supply through tankers to urban areas and some villages. Cases of skin diseases, diarrhoea, nosebleed and heatstroke have been reported from many of the rural districts. The victims include members of LWSI partner communities and project personnel.

There is an acute food crisis in many communities in the LWSI operational region. While many communities continue to benefit from the drought relief operations implemented by LWSI, Government and others, many other communities have not received assistance. The household and community stock (grain banks etc) of food grains is depleted in the absence of normal employment opportunities. The traditional crop of pre-monsoon vegetables could not be planted or those planted did not survive the scorching heat. In some communities 70% to 80% of the young saplings in community orchards (planted in the last few years with LWSI assistance) have been destroyed in the heat.

Despite the heat wave LWSI continued to implement drought mitigation operations as part of ASIN 24. Approximately 85% of the work has been completed by the first week of June. Working time has been curtailed to barely 5 hours a day on account of the heat. All activities remain suspended between 10 am and 5 pm to prevent sunstroke. In the absence of the normal spring showers, the earth has become hard and rocklike in many places and since the excavation is entirely manual, the progress of work is affected. On a positive note, in some places, the deepening of ponds (now totally dry) has uncovered water giving some temporary relief to the communities and their livestock.

In response to the drought like situation, the government of Orissa has also begun implementing food for work schemes. In some areas this has resulted in a shortage or workers. Community organizations and groups are supervising the work, but many staff have been laid low by diarrhoea, jaundice and heat stroke, delaying verification of work done and payment of wages. Since the entire program is seen as community endeavor, communities are the owners of the structure being created and many communities collecting small contributions from the work force. These contributions are added to the community kitty and will be used for the future maintenance of the structures.

Based on the current rate of progress we expect the work under ASIN 24 to spill over into July and the whole of July will be required to complete the pending work.

Everyone is looking for the monsoon rains to provide relief. But, it looks as if they are determined to play truant yet again this year. The rains were expected to arrive in Kerala by the beginning of June but according to the weathermen the arrival of monsoon will be delayed by a week to ten days. Traditionally the life giving monsoon rains reach W. Bengal and Orissa by the 10th of June, but even as we write this report, we see no signs of the rains.

However, the Northeast (including Assam) has begun to receive the rains. This means that the food for work activities under ASIN 23 will be interrupted. Fortunately, most of that work has already been completed.

Western India (Gujarat, Rajasthan and other states) are also experiencing a severe drought that has persisted for several years. With the help of local NGO partners, LWSI is reviewing the situation and considering the possibility of providing an appropriate response in Gujarat utilizing some of the funds that remain from the Gujarat Earthquake appeal.

6. World Water Forum

At the recently concluded WWF3 or World Water Forum 3 in Japan a session on disaster mitigation was held under the theme Water and Poverty.

Living with Risk - towards effective disaster reduction was convened by the UN/ISDR and the Asian Disaster Reduction Centre in Japan. It brought to the fore that often the principle cause of the increase in the impact of natural hazards is largely due to the vulnerability of the poor.

Some key elements were identified by participants as being essential to overall disaster reduction strategy. Among these were,

• Using more traditional knowledge and the community-based approach to disaster reduction,
• Encouraging governments to address problems created by urban settlements in high-risk areas.
• Sharing hydro meteorological data and information at a regional level in the case of transboundary basins to enable reliable forecasts

Duryog Nivaran welcomes your ideas, suggestions, and examples of best-practices in these key areas. We would like to conduct the discussion for ten days between June 9 and 19th. Participants can send in their comments and views to: dn.net@itdg.slt.lk. A day’s summary will be circulated daily and a final report will be sent to UN/ISDR as well. The salient points that emerge through the discussion will be shared through the Duryog Nivaran website.

This discussion forum is open to all members of Duryog Nivaran and all others who are working in the field of disaster mitigation, in South Asia or elsewhere in the world. Those who wish to participate are kindly requested to register with dn.net@itdg.slt.lk by June 8 for administrative purposes

7. SPHERE Project requests for proposals:

• Editing and design of training materials
• Engineering and design of two CD ROMS

Kindly forward this message to interested parties. You can also find the announcement at http://www.sphereproject.org.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS - EDITING AND DESIGN OF TRAINING MATERIALS

The Sphere Project will be editing, designing and publishing a book containing training modules as part of a range of products to be distributed by Oxfam Publishing toward the end of 2003. These training modules have been developed over a four-year process that has included a number of revisions based on the use of the modules in four languages on five continents. We are looking for qualified individuals, teams or organizations to edit and graphically design the modules prior to publication. The final product will consist of two spiral bound books with a CD ROM.

THE MODULES

The modules can be viewed at www.sphereproject.org
Currently in Microsoft Powerpoint and Word 97 for Windows 98

Learning Guide - 1 document approximately 50 pages, (no slides) 200KB
Module 1 - approx. 10 documents, 50 pages, 41 slides, total size 1500KB
Module 2 - approx. 9 documents, 120 pages, 42 slides, total size 800KB
Module 3 - approx. 13 documents, 90 pages, 57 slides, total size1.8MB
Module 4 - approx. 7 documents, 45 pages, 35 slides, total size 900KB
Training of Trainers module - approximately 10 documents, total size 1MB

CRITERIA FOR PROPOSALS

Proposals should explain how the parameters below would be guaranteed.

1. Clear, straightforward and consistent use of language with minimal jargon
2. Copy editing to a high standard
3. Assumed English fluency by end users, but not necessarily native speakers
4. The style is to compliment the Sphere handbook second edition. Style guide is available upon request
5. Consistency and simplicity in use of training-specific language
6. Review for consistency of training system and module structure
7. Clear, simple and attractive design that is easy to navigate by first time users
8. Proposals should be based on the modules currently available on the website
9. Finished product should be available in .pdf, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
10. A 1 page overview of editorial changes should accompany the final submitted product for translation purposes
11. Proposals that exceed $us10,000 will not be considered

TIMELINE AND MILESTONES

1. Call for proposals: 13 June, 2003
2. Deadline for proposals: 1 July, 2003
3. Selection: 1 August, 2003
4. Contracting and start of work: 4 August
5. Mid-point review 20 August
6. Final delivery to the Sphere Project Secretariat by: 15 September, 2003

Submit to: Nan Buzard, Project Manager - info@sphereproject.org

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS- ENGINEERING AND DESIGN OF TWO CD ROMS

The Sphere Project will be editing, designing and publishing a second edition of the Sphere handbook. The Project is also producing a training book as part of a range of products to be distributed by Oxfam Publishing toward the end of 2003. This RFP is for two CDROMs that will consist of (1) a revised edition of the handbook and (2) the training book and the handbook. We are looking for qualified individuals, teams or organizations to engineer the software and graphically design the layout these two CD ROMS.

The first CD ROM will be included with the new second edition Sphere handbook book and contain only that handbook (in .pdf and rich text format - approx. 1MB), links to supplementary reference materials on an internet database, and a search engine.

The second CD ROM will be included with the training modules and will
contain:
1. The handbook (approx. 900KB in RTF and .PDF)
2. The learning guide (approx. 250KB)
3. Five training modules, in Microsoft Word and Powerpoint

4. 9 minute video (needs to be digitized, can be compressed in wmv to approx. 100MB)
5. Links to supplementary reference materials on an internet database
6. A search engine

PARAMETERS

Proposals should explain how the parameters below would be guaranteed:

1. Useable on majority of computers in the humanitarian system (PC only is ok)
2. Labelled with the Sphere logo and clear instructions on how to launch
3. Self-extract / auto-launch
4. Assume users have minimal technical knowledge with CD ROMS
5. Clear, simple, attractive and functional menu and navigation system
6. Delivery of 2 master copies of each
7. Proposals that exceed $us 15,000 will not be accepted

TIME LINE AND MILESTONES

1. Call for proposals 13 June, 2003
2. Proposal deadline: 15 July
3. Work commences: 1 September
4. Demo submission to Sphere Project Manager by: 21 September
5. Final delivery to the Sphere Project Secretariat by: end September

Submit to: Nan Buzard, Project Manager - info@sphereproject.org

ALL CONTRIBUTIONS, INFORMATION, IDEAS GRATEFULLY RECEIVED.
DON'T FORGET TO ACCESS THE UPDATED AZEECON WEBSITE: www.azeecon-lwf.com