What is the COVACA?

The Community Owned Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment tool (COVACA) comprises a series of exercises that your community will undertake to identify:

1. What the likely hazard that threatens your community are
2. What capacities (strengths and weaknesses) you have in dealing with those hazards. These include traditional mechanisms
3. What you as a community can do to better prevent and prepare those events so that you do not suffer as much when they strike

Remember that the COVACA is YOUR (COMMUNITY) documentation process and leads to developing a Community Disaster preparedness Plan (CDPP). As such, it can be written in your local language.

COVACA is all about engaging the community in:

• Collecting community individual knowledge on hazards.
• Looking at the way they (communities) cope during these hazards.
• Identifying things that they (communities) can do as a community so that the next time the disaster occurs they are not affected so severely.  

Covaca Proces

Following is a summary of the COVACA process and its activities.

1. Gathering Basic Information of the Community
2. Identification of Hazard
3. Identification of Vulnerabilities, Capacities and Coping Mechanisms
4. Planning of Community Activities
5. Feedback and Sharing, Reporting and Monitoring

Community Disaster Preparedness and Response
Plans (CDPPs)

The Community Disaster Preparedness Plan is a community prepared and owned document that outlines measures to be taken in the event of a large shock or disaster. It includes plans for disaster response, relief, and rehabilitation or mitigation activities and is based on the earlier shock analysis and vulnerability and capacity assessments, early warning data and mitigation plans. The document is prepared and kept in the local language with external agencies needing to ask permission to use it. The CDPP is a live document and should be reviewed and updated regularly. Implementation of the specific parts of plan such as response to an imminent flood, is initiated by the Coordinator in consultation with CPC members’ partner agencies and local authorities. To ensure that all community members understand and are prepared to implement the plan should the need arise community simulation exercises are used to practice different activities such as getting early warning information out to community members, moving vulnerable groups to higher ground.

Principles of an Effective CDPP
• The CDPP is a community document and is written in the language of the community, preferably by community members. It is not an agency document e.g. it doesn't belong to World Vision and the agency who may be facilitating COVACA in the community needs to ask permission to use and translate it.• The CDPP is an important community document and plans/actions should be reflected in relevant local government and agency community development plans such as the partnering agency’s Annual Operational Plan• The CDPP should contribute information to government and agency Disaster Preparedness Plan from local level right through to the national Plan.• In some situations, plans from several communities may be combined to form a Zone CDPP to ensure a coordinated to response to a disaster that may affect more than one community and where a district level response will be more effective.• As throughout the COVACA process, participatory methodologies should be used to develop the CDPP• The CDPP is a live document and should be revisited and revised regularly, ideally 6-monthly. A comprehensive annual review should be undertaken and the plan updated and adjusted based on the scenario foreseen for the coming year

Simplified CDPP scenario Format

Some communities may find the process of designing a comprehensive CDPP extremely difficult for a variety of reasons. In these cases a simplified CDPP can be developed based on one probable shock.

The following information should be included:

• Probable shock

• Areas/locations likely to be affected

• List of people/families/activities likely to be affected

• Measures established to reduce the impacts

• People responsible for carrying out each activity

• Recovery plan after emergency

• Estimates of costs involved in the response

Community Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan CHECKLIST

 Is a Comprehensive CDPP or a Simplified Scenario Plan most appropriate?

 Shock Analysis and Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments available

 Early Warning and Mitigation Plans available

 Got all the right people involved?