Enabling disaster risk reduction through evidence, community wisdom, and long institutional practice.
ACEDRR is a specialised centre at the Tata-Dhan Academy, established by DHAN Foundation with support from Oxfam America. We work with people's organisations, non-government and government institutions, research bodies, and funding agencies to build knowledge and practice in disaster risk reduction.
Disaster risk reduction begins before the disaster.
The Centre exists because humanitarian response alone — the relief that arrives after a disaster has already struck — cannot build resilient communities. What builds resilience is the long, patient work of embedding disaster risk reduction into development itself: into how communities organise, how institutions plan, how knowledge moves between generations.
Mission
To provide evidence-based knowledge for enabling the integration of disaster risk reduction into mainstream development, and to encourage community-driven models for the sustainability of that work.
Vision
To become a centre of excellence in disaster risk reduction — by building and sharing knowledge from practice, pioneering research and networking, and encouraging innovation and action.
Approach
Primacy for the indigenous knowledge of communities. Partnership models rather than delivery models. Multi-sectoral, inter-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder action wherever the work demands it.
Five streams of work.
Research
Action research linking DRR with climate adaptation, natural resource management, microfinance, and participatory development. Evidence for practitioners and policy-makers alike.
Research studiesPilot projects
Field pilots with development practitioners who can facilitate community-driven strategies. Different contexts — tribal, rural, coastal, urban — across different disaster types.
Pilot projectsDatabase creation
A DRR database and online knowledge portal serving professionals, institutions, and communities — bringing practical ways of integrating DRR into development plans within reach.
Training and education
Short-duration programmes on the basics of DRR, technology, management, leadership, institution-building, and communication — for communities, practitioners, agencies, media, and educators.
Documentation and publication
Research briefs, pilot briefs, primers, and workshop papers — the printed and digital record of what the Centre has learned and what it wishes to share.
PublicationsVulnerable communities develop their own coping mechanisms. Effective disaster risk reduction begins with understanding those mechanisms — not overriding them.
Read what the Centre has published.
Research briefs, pilot briefs, and a primer on linking disaster risk reduction with development.
Linking Disaster Risk Reduction with Development Efforts
A practitioner-oriented introduction to the relationship between development and disaster risk reduction — foundational reading for the field.
Read moreThe Role of Microfinance and Micro-Insurance in DRR
A multi-country study across India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka on how financial institutions contribute to disaster management for the poor.
Read moreIndigenous Coping Mechanisms for DRR
Documentation of 100 indigenous practices that farmers and herders in rural Tamil Nadu use to increase their disaster resilience.
Read more