Community-Based Disaster Management

noun phrase

/kəˈmjuː.nɪ.ti beɪst dɪˈzɑː.stər ˈmæn.ɪdʒ.mənt/

An approach to disaster risk reduction that places communities — especially the most vulnerable — at the centre of planning, preparedness, and response activities, building on local knowledge, social networks, and indigenous coping capacities rather than relying exclusively on top-down government intervention

✍️ Usage in a UPSC answer

Odisha's model of community-based disaster management — with village-level disaster management committees, pre-positioned boats, and cyclone shelters — became a global benchmark after successfully evacuating 1.2 million people before Cyclone Fani (2019).

Synonyms

participatory disaster managementgrassroots DRRlocal disaster preparednesspeople-centred disaster management

Antonyms

top-down disaster managementcentralised emergency responsecommand-and-control model

🌱 Word Family

community-based DM (abbr), community (n), community-based (adj), CBDM (abbreviation)

🔡 Root

Latin communitas = community (communis = shared) + Middle English base = foundation + Latin/Greek dis-astro + Latin manus = hand (root of manage)

📜 Etymology

The approach gained global traction through UNDP and IFRC programmes in the 1990s; in India, NDMA guidelines (2009) explicitly mandated community-based disaster preparedness; the concept drew strength from the observation that locally organised communities survived the 1999 Odisha Super Cyclone better than unprepared ones

🧠 Memory Hook

COMMUNITY-BASED: the COMMUNITY at the BASE (foundation) — building disaster readiness from the ground up, not the top down

⚠️ Disaster Management 📖 Seen in: Disaster Management — Framework, Prepa... 📋 Also in Key Terms

Tip: press Alt+S to hear pronunciation