Communication, Vulnerability, Disaster Management and Climate Change: The Role of Community Radios, 4-6 May 2011, Haiti

AMARC, the World Association of Community Radio, is currently realizing a Regional Conference in Port-au-prince, Haiti, from the 4th to the 6th of May, entitled "Communication, Vulnerability, Emergencies and Climate Change: The Role of Community Radio”.

The goal of the conference will be to reinforce the social impact of community radios in regards to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as prepare for using community radio in the areas of disaster preparedness and humanitarian response, including food security.

The conference will gather community radio representatives from the Caribbean region and Haiti, as well as delegates from other regions to exchange experiences and strength capacities of community radios in awareness raising and information broadcasting. Overall objective is accompanying communities during natural disasters, such as those happened in Indonesia, Japan, Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Cuba, Chile and elsewhere.

The Conference will analyze best practices by Community Radios, NGOs and Governments in Disaster prevention and management as well as in climate change adaptation and mitigation, defining lines of action to increase Community Radios and Civil Society effectiveness. 

During the Conference, that will see the participation of FAO emergency projects in Haiti, Onda Rural, FAO Latin America Regional Office and CSDI, three main specific activities will be implemented:

• An Onda Rural presentation on the thematic conference entitled “Dealing with Climate Change, emergencies and vulnerability through communication and community radios”, building on the Onda Rural experience and its support to FAO emergency projects, particularly in Perú;
• An interactive workshop to assess and launch FAO’s cholera prevention communication strategy for rural areas in Haiti, previously prepared by a FAO emergency project in the country;
• An interactive workshop to validate a proposal for communication guidelines for disaster risk reduction and emergencies elaborated by Onda Rural with CSDI support.
  FAO will support the conference in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2008 with AMARC to enhance the use of radio in agriculture and rural development initiatives.

Communication for Development promotes the combination of participatory approaches, community and broadcast media in rural areas, particularly, the use of community radios in providing access to knowledge and information to rural audiences to enhance their resilience to hazards and natural disasters.