This solution is a paired methodology guide and digital toolkit developed by PIROI — the Indian Ocean Regional Intervention Platform of the French Red Cross — to support Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement practitioners in designing, implementing, and evaluating disaster risk reduction awareness and education projects in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). It combines a structured five-section methodological guide with a curated toolkit of 59 practical tools, all adapted to the specific risk, governance, and communication contexts of SIDS in the South West Indian Ocean.
Map
Methodology Guide & Toolkit — DRR Awareness and Education in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
General Information
ISIG
Providing Red Cross/Red Crescent practitioners with a complete project cycle framework and 59 adaptable tools for implementing community and school-based disaster risk education in Small Island Developing States.
Developed by PIROI (French Red Cross) under the 3 Oceans project with support from the French Development Agency (AFD), the methodology was created collaboratively with National Societies from Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania, in consultation with DRR actors across the Indian Ocean, Pacific, and Caribbean regions. The methodology capitalizes on 18 DRR projects reaching over 155,000 people in the Southwest Indian Ocean. The framework covers five project cycle stages: (1) Identification of needs, (2) Project design, (3) Planning, (4) Implementation, and (5) Monitoring and evaluation. The toolkit contains 59 tools categorized as ready-to-use (downloadable templates), inspirational (Red Cross/Red Crescent and international organization resources), and to-go-further (full methodological guides). Tools were selected through empirical exchanges between practitioners based on criteria of relevance, quality, clarity, and practitioner ownership. The methodology applies a community and school-based approach specifically adapted to SIDS contexts, emphasizing participatory approaches, knowledge transfer, and capitalizing on existing structures.
Small Island Developing States face disproportionate disaster risk relative to their size: SIDS experience 2.1% average annual GDP loss from disasters compared to 0.3% globally, with only 39% having multi-hazard early warning systems. Over 10 million people in the Southwest Indian Ocean have been affected by natural disasters in the past decade. SIDS share unique vulnerabilities: geographic isolation hampering humanitarian access, limited infrastructure and public services, small populations constraining institutional capacity, high exposure to climate-related hazards (cyclones, sea-level rise, flooding, drought), and economic dependence on climate-sensitive sectors (tourism, fisheries). Despite recognizing DRR as a priority, SIDS National Societies and local practitioners often lack accessible,adapted methodologies for implementing education and awareness projects in resource-constrained, island-specific contexts.
PIROI, created in 2000 as the French Red Cross regional platform for the Indian Ocean, has emphasized strengthening risk knowledge through education, risk governance, and community resilience. The 3 Oceans project (Indian, Pacific, Caribbean) aims to reduce impacts of natural hazards, health crises, and climate change through cooperation, integration, and knowledge sharing across ocean basins. The methodology and toolkit respond to the identified need for accessible, SIDS-adapted DRR education guidance that can be implemented by practitioners with basic DRR skills rather than requiring specialized training.
Hazard Type
Geographical Scope - Nuts
Population Size
Population Density
Needs Addressed
DRR practitioners in SIDS contexts — particularly RC/RC volunteers and project managers — often lack a structured, contextually adapted framework for designing and implementing DRR awareness and education projects. Existing global guidance tends to be too generic, insufficiently attuned to the specific hazard profiles, governance arrangements, communication constraints, and cultural dynamics of small island contexts. This results in projects that are poorly targeted, use inappropriate communication channels, fail to reach the most vulnerable groups, or cannot be sustained beyond the initial intervention period.
Specifically, the solution addresses:
- The difficulty of conducting contextually appropriate needs assessments and risk analyses in low-resource SIDS settings
- The lack of structured audience targeting that accounts for gender, disability, age, and socioeconomic vulnerability
- The challenge of designing risk communication that achieves genuine behavioural change rather than one-off awareness
- The absence of structured approaches to school-based DRR that link classroom learning to community preparedness and household action
- The weak integration of DRR into formal school curricula and national DRR strategies
- The limited monitoring and evaluation capacity of National Societies to demonstrate impact and improve practice over time
School-based approach targets children; island populations are inherently vulnerable to climate/disaster risks.
SIDS in the South West Indian Ocean operate under decentralised DRR governance frameworks with roles distributed across national DRR authorities, line ministries, local authorities, and civil society. The guide's partnership framework maps seven partner types (volunteers, communities, National Societies, civil society, state services, technical/academic, financial) and their roles across all project phases.
The methodology supports National Society-led implementation with community participation and multistakeholder engagement (schools, ministries, local authorities).
Designed for practitioners with basic DRR skills; strengthens both community awareness and institutional capacity. Thus, applicable in contexts where DRR awareness is minimal and where existing response structures can integrate awareness and education activities.
Deliberately adaptable to low-resource SIDS contexts with limited infrastructure. Community campaigns function with printed materials, meeting spaces, and basic broadcast infrastructure. Digital tools, video content, and online platforms used where connectivity allows.
To ensure DRR awareness and education programmes are contextually appropriate, culturally relevant, and genuinely effective in reaching and changing the behaviour of target populations; and to strengthen community ownership of preparedness actions.
- KAP (Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices) surveys
- Socio-anthropological studies
- Field observations and interviews with community stakeholders
- Focus groups with local authorities
- Community mapping exercises (including GIS-based mapping in Vanuatu)
- Public events and awareness campaigns (games, exhibitions, market-based activities)
- School-based interactive lessons and extracurricular activities
- Training of community volunteers and teachers as peer facilitators
- Community targeting committees (as in the Madagascar model)
Programme design and content authority rests with PIROI and implementing National Societies, informed by community consultation and stakeholder input. Communities influence programme design through participation in needs assessments, KAP surveys, and community mapping; they influence implementation through local targeting committees and volunteer facilitation; and they influence outcomes by adopting preparedness behaviours and transmitting knowledge within households and social networks. In the school-based model, teachers exercise substantial pedagogical discretion within the framework provided by the guide and Ministry of Education partnerships.
The capacity-building component is explicitly structured as a long-term investment: training teachers to independently run DRR sessions within the academic curriculum (achieved in Reunion Island from 2020, with 43,685 pupils sensitised since 2011); training DRR volunteers to facilitate community events and campaigns; and building institutional capacity of National Societies to design, implement, and evaluate their own DRR programmes without ongoing external support. The exit strategy requirement institutionalises this empowerment logic: programmes are designed from the outset to be owned and sustained by local actors.
Vulnerable Groups
Governance
Emergency Preparedness
Engagement Level
Empowerment Level
Implementation
Evidence-based: Built on 18 DRR projects reaching 155,000+ people in Southwest Indian Ocean.
Explicit SIDS adaptation. Every section is grounded in the specific hazard profile, climate vulnerability, governance arrangements, and communication constraints of island contexts. The guide integrates disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation (CCA) as complementary objectives, consistent with the Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework 2015–2030.
Integration of a five-stage project cycle methodology with a curated toolkit of 59 practical tools. Rather than presenting generic guidance, practitioners receive both strategic direction and specific operational tools at every stage — ready-to-use, inspirational, or reference — drawn from the RC/RC Movement's own documented field experience.
Collaborative development: Co-created by six National Societies with PIROI, ensuring practitioner relevance and regional ownership.
Child protection as a cross-cutting principle. Embedded throughout, reflecting the guide's recognition that children are both a priority vulnerable group and the most effective community change agents.
Audience-differentiated message design matrix. The guide explicitly maps message type, attention span, and optimal communication tool format for adults, youth, and children — a practical innovation rarely codified in DRR methodology guides at this level of specificity.
Multi-channel communication framework. Three main channels are distinguished — graphic representations, audio and digital transmission, and events/public awareness campaigns — each with detailed guidance on prerequisites, audience adaptation, timing, and practical deployment.
Sophisticated partner identification and management framework. Maps seven partner types, defines roles across three project phases, and requires exit strategy planning from project inception — institutionalising long-term sustainability from the outset.
SIMEX (school simulation exercise) as a required implementation tool. At least one exercise per anticipated hazard per year, connecting school-based education directly to emergency response practice.
Pictogram guidance for low-literacy contexts. Adapted to serve populations with literacy difficulties and culturally calibrated to avoid universal symbol assumptions.
English and French — both the methodology guide and the PIROI toolkit are fully available in both languages.
Developed by PIROI — the Indian Ocean Regional Intervention Platform of the French Red Cross, based in Reunion Island, attached to the French Red Cross International Relations and Operations Directorate (DROI). Operating since 2000 as a regional disaster risk management programme in the South West Indian Ocean.
Co-developed with: the French Red Cross International Relations and Operations Department; the German Red Cross based in Madagascar; and the National Societies of Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Funded in part by AFD (Agence Française de Développement).
In other contexts, the solution can be implemented by: RC/RC National Societies with DRR education mandates; national and regional DRR authorities; NGOs and humanitarian organisations working in SIDS DRR; and education ministries in partnership with RC/RC actors.
PIROI has operated as a regional DRR platform since 2000, administering programmes across the South West Indian Ocean on four axes: response preparedness, emergency response, rehabilitation and reconstruction, and prevention and mitigation. Since 1998, the French Red Cross has been administering DRR programmes with a participatory approach. The flagship Paré pas Paré community awareness initiative (launched 2011) has inspired similar projects in Mayotte, Mauritius, Seychelles, and the Comoros, and extended to the Caribbean through PIRAC. The methodology guide draws on 18 DRR projects reaching more than 155,000 people.
- PIROI and French Red Cross - lead developer and regional coordinator);
- National Societies of Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania - co-developers and primary implementing actors;
- German Red Cross / Madagascar (co-developer);
- IFRC and ICRC (institutional partners);
- National DRR authorities and line ministries (education, health, environment);
- Local authorities, village leaders, and community targeting committees; technical, scientific, and academic institutions; teachers and school facilitators;
- Volunteers as field facilitators;
- Children, youth groups, adults, elderly people, and people with disabilities as primary and secondary target audiences.
Per the five-stage methodology:
- Needs identification — Community consultations, risk/vulnerability assessment, stakeholder mapping
- Project design — Objectives, target groups, activities, partnerships using toolkit resources
- Planning — Budgeting, scheduling, roles, material preparation
- Implementation — Delivery of awareness/education activities (schools, communities) using tools
- Monitoring and Evaluation — Data collection, impact assessment, learning documentation, adaptation
- Human resources: trained DRR project managers, coordinators, and volunteers with facilitation skills;
- Contextual knowledge of local hazard profiles;
- Partnerships with local authorities, schools, and community leaders;
- Financial resources for material production, event organisation, and volunteer mobilisation;
- Basic communication infrastructure.
The toolkit's ready-to-use tools are available for free download and require only basic adaptation capacity.
Full project cycle: Five defined stages each with tools, outputs, and monitoring mechanisms. Individual project durations vary by context and scale; the guide is designed for medium-to-long-term DRR education programmes. Exit strategy planning is required from project inception.
Project cycle framework spans months to years depending on scope; individual activities vary from single sessions to multi-year programmes.
Target Audience
Resources Required
Timeframe & Phases
Participation Results
- Contextual analysis before action. The Mayotte socio-anthropological study illustrates this concretely: risk perception was shaped by religious beliefs, folk knowledge, and past trauma — factors entirely missed by standard hazard exposure analysis but essential to understanding which communication approaches can succeed.
- School-based DRR works best when integrated into formal curricula. The PIROI-Ministry of Education partnership in Reunion Island — enabling teachers to independently run DRR sessions from 2020 onwards — demonstrates what systemic integration looks like in practice, versus one-off external interventions.
- Multi-actor partnerships produce stronger outcomes. Combining RC/RC National Societies, state services, technical institutions, and community actors produces more durable results than single-organisation approaches, particularly in low-resource SIDS contexts.
- Youth and volunteers are a strategic resource. Not simply delivery vehicles for external messages, but trusted community communicators capable of reaching peers, families, and community members through informal networks that formal institutions cannot replicate.
- Financial sustainability of volunteers matters. The Tanzania training of trainers case demonstrates that technical capacity alone is insufficient if volunteers cannot sustain their engagement over time; income-generating support is necessary in low-resource contexts.
- Technology-enabled experiential learning improves outcomes. The Samoa VR tsunami SIMEX illustrates that immersive technology, when deployed with adequate multi-agency support, dramatically improves drill engagement and preparedness — even in a SIDS context.
Low initial risk perception. Populations may not recognise or prioritise disaster risk, particularly for low-frequency, high-impact hazards. The adaptive strategy is to ground awareness-raising in local disaster history, combine emotional engagement with factual information, and use trusted local messengers rather than external authorities alone. The Mayotte socio-anthropological study reveals how religious beliefs, folk knowledge, and past trauma shape risk perception in ways invisible to standard hazard exposure analysis.
Reaching dispersed island populations. The guide's diversified channel approach — combining mass communication (radio, TV) for broad reach with personalised community events for depth of engagement — directly addresses the tension between scale and impact, while factoring in seasonal cycles and 'free time' patterns for message timing.
Literacy constraints. Addressed through graphic representations, visual-first content, pictograms with severity colour codes, and participatory formats rather than text-heavy materials. Pictograms are culturally calibrated to avoid universal symbol assumptions.
Sustainability beyond project timelines. Addressed through curriculum integration, volunteer and teacher capacity building (reducing dependence on external facilitators), formal partnership agreements with state institutions, and exit strategy planning embedded from project inception.
Gender and inclusion gaps. Addressed through gender mainstreaming guidance integrated across all five sections, with explicit instructions to adapt targeting, materials, and facilitation methods for equitable access.
Volunteer retention in low-resource contexts. The Tanzania case demonstrates that financial incentives and livelihood support (income-generating activities) are necessary alongside technical capacity building to retain trained DRR volunteers over time.
- Low community uptake mitigated by varied, participatory, game-based formats and by timing events to seasonal risk peaks and community calendars.
- Partner dependency mitigated by exit strategy requirements, diversified partner typology, and DRR curriculum integration so delivery continues independently of any single champion.
- Communication credibility risk mitigated by partnering with trusted local actors and conducting socio-anthropological analysis before campaign design.
- Content appropriateness risks addressed through the socio-anthropological study methodology and EVCA tool.
Risk & Mitigation Plan
Scalability and Sustainability
The methodology guide and toolkit operate on a knowledge commons / movement infrastructure model: freely accessible public goods, maintained within PIROI's institutional mandate and funded through the French Red Cross's international operations budget, with co-funding from AFD for specific projects. Their sustainability does not depend on project-by-project external funding; they are institutionally embedded within PIROI's regional DRR mission and the broader RC/RC Movement's global knowledge-sharing infrastructure. The IFRC PrepareCenter hosting provides an additional layer of institutional permanence.
For adopting National Societies, sustainability of projects implemented using the guide depends on integration of DRR education into national systems (school curricula, national DRR plans) — a goal the methodology explicitly supports through its partnership and curriculum integration guidance.
The methodology is explicitly designed for transferability. Its five-stage project cycle framework is context-independent; the SIDS-specific adaptation is primarily in the illustrative case studies, hazard profiles used as examples, and communication channel guidance — all replaceable with locally relevant equivalents. The guide has already been applied beyond the South West Indian Ocean: the toolkit's development process involved consultation with DRR actors in the Pacific and Caribbean, and the companion Paré pas Paré awareness model has been extended to the Caribbean through PIRAC.
The toolkit's 59 tools are organised for selective adoption: practitioners can use the full toolkit or draw on individual tools relevant to their specific project stage, context, and capacity. The three-category classification (ready-to-use, inspirational, reference) allows both well-resourced and low-resource implementers to find appropriate tools.
Adaptation to new SIDS contexts requires: localisation of hazard profiles and risk examples; translation into local languages; review of communication channel guidance to reflect local media and community communication patterns; identification of relevant local partners; and, for school-based components, mapping to the relevant national curriculum framework.
Innovation is primarily methodological — The toolkit and guide are hosted on publicly accessible digital platforms, freely available without specialist software. The methodology functions in low-infrastructure SIDS settings. Game-based and participatory formats (board games, card games, illustrated guides, community events) are prioritised because they are low-tech and high-engagement. Where available, digital and audio tools, video content, virtual reality, and online platforms extend reach and depth.