Positioning Grassroots Community Practitioners as Experts and Advisors

What is the Community Practitioners Platform? (Download Flyer)

The Community Practitioner's Platform facilitates grassroots, community groups vulnerable to natural disasters, climate change, and deepening poverty and degradation arising from these to demonstrate, teach, and build alliances with governments and development institutions and take strategic policy and program action to promote pro-poor, resilient development.

The Huairou Commission and GROOTS International were invited by UNISDR to design and lead the Community Practitioners' Platform to aggregate community voices and action to shape the agenda and processes leading up to the next Global Platform in 2011.

Activities of the Community Practitioner's Platform

1. Convene grassroots community experts in regional and national forums to share practices, lessons and identify advocacy priorities.
2. Promote interface between community leaders and local authorities, national governments and other donors and policy makers.
3. Facilitate community-led actions that demonstrate grassroots women and community capacities to undertake public roles in resilience.
4. Create products that communicate lessons, insights and advocacy messages of the CPP.

A Unique Opportunity

The formation of this platform presents a unique opportunity for community level representatives living and working in poor communities affected by disaster and climate change to play a key role in agenda setting and influencing UNISDR's strategic plans and in implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action. The platform will function to enhance the visibility of community-led innovations and partnerships to reduce the impact of disaster and climate change.