In 1998 counterparts of Oxfam Novib set up a joint relief program in response to El Niño. The results include different water management systems in villages on mountain slopes, credit extension and technical support to livelihood projects, rice rations for victim-families living in remote areas. A new relief and rehabilitation project will continue these activities, but will focus not only on natural disasters, but also include the effects of manmade disasters. Relief activities include provision of food and medicines.

The waru waru restoration project began in 1991 in the southern Andean department of Puno, Peru.  The aim is to recover a technology, invented by the Tiahuanaco culture, that fell into disuse around 1100 A.D.  Archaeological excavations of raised fields demonstrated that farmers began constructing them by 1000 BC.  Waru waru, or raised field, agriculture makes it possible to bring into production the low-lying, floodprone, poorly drained lands found all over the Altiplano.  The project involves the restoration of earthworks that are central to the technology.

The World Bank began a project in 1983 that involved installing 15,000 of low-cost shallow tube well technology combined with small engine-driven water pumps, a new technology that soon acquired the name “fadama irrigation”.

The project development objective is to enhance regional coordination, development and sustainability of water resources management in the Niger River Basin. The expected outcomes include: (i) improved institutional coordination for regional management and development of water resources in the Niger River Basin; (ii) improved performance of rehabilitated hydroelectric plants in targeted areas; (iii) improved irrigated agriculture in targeted areas; and (iv) improved watershed management in targeted areas. There are 3 components to the project.

Chitwan is the most flood prone among the districts of Nepal.  People regularly experience losses of land, property and biodiversity as well as food shortages.  The Intermediate Technology Development Group implemented a community-based disaster management program in cooperation with DIPECHO (Disaster Preparedness program of the European Commission Humanitarian aid Office) to reduce the impact of floods by strengthening the capacity of local communities to set up early warning systems.

Recently, the Knowledge and Research program from CARE and the Nepal Red Cross Society together with Jaleshwar Municipality began implementing community-based low cost flood risk reduction measures through action planning.  The project enhanced the capacity of communities to cope with and manage flood disasters by building institutional capacities through establishing various committees including, Community Based Disaster Management Committee, Disaster Preparedness Subcommittees, First Aid Subcommittees, Disaster Relief Subcommittees, and Coordination Subcommittees.  These committees were pr

The objective of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) Support Project is to generate and disseminate improved technologies in the participating countries’ top priority areas that are aligned with the region’s top priorities, as identified by Central Africa Counsel for Agricultural Research (CORAF). These include roots and tubers in Ghana; rice in Mali; and cereals in Senegal. The project has four main components. The first component is enabling conditions for regional cooperation in technology generation and dissemination.

A Monitoring and Early Warning System (MEWS) developed by partners of the Roll Back Malaria initiative in Southern Africa has been implemented by Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. The MEWS works by examining the factors that contribute to outbreaks of malaria and planning the response to such outbreaks.

Maize is one of the main staple foods in Southern Africa. However, droughts and poor soil often result in small harvests or even total harvest failure. The New Seed Initiative for Maize in Southern Africa has been developing maize varieties with tolerance to drought, certain diseases and soil lacking in nutrients since 1996.

The goal of this project, implemented by Action Aid, is to reduce people’s vulnerability to natural disasters by contributing to the implementation of the Hyogo framework. The purpose is to make schools in high-risk disaster areas safer, enabling them to act as a locus for disaster risk reduction. The project works in 7 countries in selected districts at high-risk of diverse natural disasters.