Supporting Survivor and Community-Led Response (sclr)
Our Brand of Locally-Led Humanitarian Action
Across disaster-prone communities in the Philippines, people do not wait passively for aid to arrive. They organize, mobilize local resources, protect one another, and rebuild their lives through collective action.
This reality lies at the heart of Survivor and Community Led Response (SCLR). The approach recognizes that people affected by crises are not passive recipients of aid. They are the first responders, decision makers, and architects of recovery.
For the Center for Disaster Preparedness (CDP), SCLR is not a new project or short term humanitarian tool. It is rooted in more than three decades of advancing community based disaster risk reduction and management (CBDRRM) in partnership with people’s organizations and grassroots groups that have long histories of collective action in their communities.
Rather than delivering solutions to communities, CDP works alongside these organizations to strengthen their capacities for disaster preparedness, anticipatory action, and locally led response.
This practice reflects CDP’s commitment to localization in humanitarian action and contributes to wider conversations about shifting power within the aid system, including movements such as #ShiftThePower.
What is sclr?
Survivor and Community Led Response is an approach that recognizes the agency, knowledge, and capacities of communities affected by disasters.
Instead of external actors designing and controlling responses, communities themselves:
• identify priorities
• mobilize local resources
• design solutions
• lead implementation
Humanitarian organizations play a supporting role, providing facilitation, mentoring, and connections to wider networks while ensuring that decision making remains with communities.
In the Philippine context, this approach resonates strongly with cultural values such as bayanihan, mutual support, and collective responsibility. Communities have long relied on these traditions to support one another during times of crisis.
SCLR therefore recognizes and strengthens practices that communities already use to respond to disasters.
CDP’s Approach to sclr
CDP’s practice of SCLR is grounded in its long standing work on CBDRRM and community resilience across the Philippines.
Rather than introducing externally designed response mechanisms, CDP works with existing people’s organizations, women’s groups, fisherfolk associations, and other grassroots formations that already play important roles within their communities.
Through these partnerships, CDP supports processes that strengthen community leadership, preparedness, and locally driven solutions.
Three principles guide this work.
Community Leadership
Communities define their own priorities and lead the actions that shape their future.
People’s organizations and grassroots groups take the lead in identifying risks, developing preparedness strategies, and implementing initiatives that address the challenges they face.
CDP supports these efforts through facilitation, training, mentoring, and learning exchanges, ensuring that communities remain at the center of decision making.
This approach recognizes that communities themselves possess deep knowledge of their environment, their risks, and the strategies needed to protect their families and livelihoods.
Building on Local Systems
Communities already have systems for cooperation, knowledge sharing, and collective action.
These systems may take the form of people’s organizations, local associations, informal support networks, or traditional practices of solidarity.
Rather than replacing these systems with externally created structures, SCLR strengthens them.
Through CBDRRM processes, communities strengthen their capacity to:
• understand risks
• improve early warning systems
• develop preparedness and contingency plans
• organize anticipatory actions before disasters escalate
This approach ensures that disaster preparedness and response are embedded within community systems rather than dependent on external actors.
Enabling Local Innovation
Communities are encouraged to explore solutions that respond to their own realities.
These initiatives often combine disaster preparedness with livelihoods, local resource mobilization, and community support mechanisms.
By creating space for local innovation, SCLR allows communities to experiment with ideas that strengthen both resilience and economic security.
Many of these initiatives are rooted in the everyday experiences of community members and reflect their understanding of local risks and opportunities.
Community Voices
Community members and grassroots organizations demonstrate how disaster preparedness becomes meaningful when communities themselves understand the risks they face and lead the actions needed to protect one another.
These reflections from community partners illustrate how locally led initiatives are strengthening resilience, leadership, and collective action.
From Participation to Ownership
When communities lead their own preparedness initiatives, the shift from participation to ownership becomes visible.
Local organizations such as Cambilla Women’s Association, SAKAILAP, Salvacion Women’s Fisherfolk Organization, LUPA, and KaBaRo are not simply implementing activities. They are designing solutions that reflect their own priorities and experiences.
Through these locally led initiatives, communities are:
• strengthening early warning systems
• organizing anticipatory actions before disasters occur
• creating locally managed preparedness mechanisms
• building resilience rooted in collective action and solidarity
These examples demonstrate that effective humanitarian action begins not with external actors, but with communities recognizing and strengthening their own power to respond.
sclr and Localization
SCLR provides a concrete example of what localization in humanitarian action can look like in practice.
Rather than positioning international actors as the primary drivers of humanitarian response, SCLR recognizes that communities themselves already play central roles in responding to crises.
In this approach:
• communities lead decision-making
• local organizations design and implement initiatives
• external actors provide accompaniment and support
This represents a shift away from traditional aid models, in which decisions and resources are often concentrated within international organizations.
As highlighted in the publication Beyond Localization, approaches such as SCLR demonstrate how humanitarian practice can move beyond simply including local actors toward placing communities at the center of response systems and decision-making.
For a deeper discussion on localization and emerging humanitarian practices, readers can explore the Beyond Localization publication below.
Survivor and Community-Led Crisis Response demonstrates how localization can move from policy commitments to real practice. By trusting communities to identify priorities and lead response efforts, sclr challenges traditional aid structures and helps shift power closer to where crises are experienced.
Read more in the Beyond Localization paper.