Vanuatu is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world due to its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Community Disaster and Climate Change Committees help empower local communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters by training first aid officers, helping schools develop risk management plans, and simulating disasters to test emergency response plans, with a focus on vulnerable groups. These committees provide a smart investment in risk management by establishing social infrastructure and local institutions that give communities the knowledge and tools to manage both disasters and climate change while also aiding the state in effective disaster preparation, response, and recovery.

1. Managing risk by
investing in communities
The case for Community Disaster and Climate Change
Committees CDCCCs in Vanuatu

2. Vanuatu: the disaster prone
country on earth
A school destroyed by cyclone Ivy in 2004

3. Community Disaster & Climate
Change Committees (CDCCCs)
empower communities to prepare
for, respond to & recover from
disasters

4. CDCCCs train first aid officers

5. Help local institutions like schools
develop risk management plans

6. Simulate disasters to put response
plans into action

8. With a focus on the most vulnerable

10. CDCCCs – a smart investment in
risk management
 The social infrastructure that empowers
communities with the knowledge and
tools to manage disasters and a changing
climate
 Building institutions that the state can use
to effectively prepare for, respond to and
recover from disasters