US IOTWS Small Grants Program

Of the $16.6 million has been used to implement the U.S. Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS) Program, $693,000 was allocated towards the implementation of 15 grants project under the Small Grants Program. The US IOTWS Program serves to support efforts to develop an “end-to-end” early warning system for tsunamis and other natural disasters in the Indian Ocean in coordination with the International Oceanographic Commission’s Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean, which has the lead responsibility for coordinating the effort of donor nations and national governments in the region and others. USG agency partners include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (USDA/FS), and U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).

The objective of the Small Grants Program has been to conduct activities in one or more of the focus countries to help catalyze and replicate pilot activities at the sub-national level in a manner that will contribute to on-the-ground disaster mitigation, preparedness, and response. The SGP complemented the overall end-to-end early warning system with downstream, sustainable projects. Through a total of 15 small grant projects, the US IOTWS Program engaged local institutions as implementing partners, while ensuring that program resources produced maximum long-term impact as local capabilities were enhanced. As with the greater US IOTWS Program principles and themes, the SGP helped to reinforce and encourage cooperation and the sharing of experiences within the region, as well as with the U.S. and international community.

The SGP placed emphasis upon field-level support in four of the focus countries and included the following types of activities:

Hazard Assessment and Modelling
Tsunamis and other disasters impact communities depending on the infrastructure, geography, and location of the community. Two grants to universities in Sri Lanka assessed the risks facing each community through tsunami inundation modelling and development of hazard zonation maps.

Education and Awareness Raising
Local knowledge and preparedness to act is a vital component of an end-to-end warning system. Local communities must not only receive warnings but know how to respond. Eight grants in this area supported work to enhance community initiatives towards resilience through training, increased stakeholder participation, education and awareness, and community-based disaster preparedness. Over 19,000 people were trained across the region.

Community-based Disaster Management Planning
Four grants worked at the community level to develop disaster preparedness plans that ensured the participation of all stakeholders, including the most vulnerable. Pilot projects in four countries implemented measures to reduce vulnerability to disasters, such as building natural barriers to tsunami, coral reef rehabilitation, and sustainable fisheries management.

Project Title	Grantee	India	Indo- nesia	Sri Lanka	Thai- land
Strengthening Capacity on Multi-hazard Risk Assessment in Tsunami Affected Countries (SCRATCH)	Asian Institute of Technology	■	■	■	■
Assessment of Local Institutions on National Policies and Measures Towards Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation	Asian Institute of Technology	■		■
Capacity Building of Coastal Communities on Coastal Mitigation	Asian Institute of Technology				■
Tsunami Education for Teachers in Southern Thailand Coastal Communities	Chulalongkorn University				■
Last Mile Communications Inventory	D-TRAC				■
School Eduction Roadshow in Padang, Indonesia	KOGAMI		■
Revising, Expansion, and Multi-stakeholder Community-based Disaster Management Kit	IDEP		■
Outreach and Public Dialogue on Decentralizing Legal Reform for Disaster Management	Indonesian Society for Disaster Management (MPBI)		■
Building Community Capacity and Technical Assistance to Effectively Respond to Warnings of Tsunamis and Other Hazards	Save Andaman Network/East Tennessee State University				■
Tsunami Response Program: Community-based Disaster Management in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India	SEEDS India	■
Coastal Community Institutional Strengthening in Coastal Hazard Analysis, Mitigation and Preparedness, and Disaster Response and Recovery	Sewalanka Foundation			■
Risk Assessment and Design of Countermeasures for Tsunami Hazard: Case Study for the Port City of Galle, Sri Lanka	University of Moratuwa			■
Development of Tsunami Hazard Zonation Maps for the Coastal Belt of Sri Lanka	University of Peredeniya			■
Rehabilitation of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Tsunami-affected Coastal Communities in Aceh Province, Indonesia	WorldFish Center		■
Coastal Community Resilience and Coral Reef Management in Tay Muang District, Phang Nga, Thailand	WWF Thailand				■