ABSTRACT
Community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) and community-based disaster management (CBDM) can be traced to the rise of the concepts of community development in the 1950s and participatory development in the 1960s and the 1970s. These were the decades when the less affluent countries found themselves struggling with underdevelopment and the expanding gaps between the rich and the poor. Participatory development was born, challenging the economic and political relations among nations at the macro level, and placing the people at the center of development at the micro level. The aim of CBDRR and CBDM is to reduce disaster impacts and risks through community participation (Uy 2004). It is sometimes referred to by other names or concepts such as community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) and community-based disaster preparedness (CBDP). This chapter explores the history and growing use of community-based approaches with examples drawn from the Philippines, where the author is based, and from India, Bangladesh, and the Solomon Islands.
