Disaster Risk Reduction

The first major SSP intervention began after the Marathwada districts of Mahrashtra were devastated by an earthquake in 1993. For a decade since, SSP has continued its commitment to delivering support, technical assistance and capacity building strategies to areas hit by disasters. SSP’s community-based, “disasters to development” approach most notably helped rehabilitate livelihoods after the Gujarat earthquake in 2001 and the unprecedented tsunami that hit the Tamil Nadu coast in 2004.

In each of these areas, SSP transformed community-led reconstruction into a more lasting model for promoting development efforts and empowering women. SSP created sustainable, community-owned organisations and linkages that have since allowed the poor to access microfinance and sustainable livelihood opportunities. When disasters bring plight and devastation to the poor, women’s groups can play a vital and strategic role in the planning and managing of life-shaping resources.

SSP actions in the area of disaster risk management include the following:

Between 1994 and 1998, SSP was appointed as a consultant to the Maharashtra Government to promote community participation in rehabilitation under a World Bank-supported project.

After the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, the resource pool of SSP included community and technical teams who had worked on post-earthquake rehabilitation in Maharashtra and over three hundred federation leaders. In many villages, especially in the underdeveloped Kutch region, post-earthquake activities effectively carved entry-points for SSP to establish and nurture SHGs that would later play a key role in village development and governance initiatives.

In the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami that devastated many nations, SSP facilitated grassroots women to transfer innovations to the two most affected districts of Tamil Nadu. Risk reduction measures included enabling disaster safe shelter construction, access to public and private health services to address psychosocial issues, access to safe, clean water and stronger social networks to respond and intervene based on priorities in mainstream rehabilitation programmes.

In collaboration with like-minded organizations and local federations, SSP has worked with traditional fishing, farmer and artisan communities affected during the tsunami disaster to recover commercial activities and restore livelihoods.


SSP sees itself as a participant–facilitator that can effectively transform a crisis situation into an opportunity for mobilising women’s groups and communities to participate in long-term sustainable local development. Achieving this objective involves investing in the capacities of women’s groups and the creation of social infrastructure through a four-point strategy:

Facilitating people-to-people exchanges
Building community resource centres
Providing access to crucial information
Empowering women’s self-help groups in reconstruction

Furthermore, SSP coordinates the Global Working Group on Disasters as a link between policy makers and local governments. It moderates a web forum (www.disasterwatch.net) as a node for sharing local initiatives and up-streaming lessons from grassroots initiatives. This platform provides rich resources and quarterly e-newsletters such as “Disaster Brief” and “Tsunami Update” on communities and disaster response.