Report on Freetown-Based Disaster-Resilient Project Planning Document

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of a disaster-resilient project for Freetown, Sierra Leone, focusing on the devastating mudslide of August 2017. The report begins with an introduction to project planning and disaster resilience, followed by a detailed identification and description of the problem, including its causes, local efforts, VCA mapping, and a SWOT analysis. A summary of the proposed project outlines objectives and project design, emphasizing the need for improved town planning, technological advancements, accurate weather reporting, and emergency funds. The report concludes with an action plan and implementation strategy, including community participation, program sustainability, and recommendations to address challenges. The report also addresses the expected benefits of the project, highlighting its potential to minimize human and infrastructure losses, ultimately aiming to enhance Freetown's resilience to future disasters.

Running header: Freetown based Disaster Resilient Project 0
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Identification and Description of the problem...........................................................................3
Report on Freetown- Based
Disaster-resilient Project
Planning Document
May 30
2018

Freetown based Disaster Resilient Project 1
Problem..................................................................................................................................3
Causes....................................................................................................................................3
Local efforts...........................................................................................................................3
VCA Mapping........................................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis.....................................................................................................................4
Strengths:............................................................................................................................4
Weakness:..........................................................................................................................5
Opportunities:.....................................................................................................................5
Threats:...............................................................................................................................5
Summary of the Propose Project............................................................................................5
Objectives...........................................................................................................................5
Proposed Project design.............................................................................................................6
Action Plan Implementation......................................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
Reference..................................................................................................................................12
Introduction
Project Planning Management is the part of Project management. Project Management is the
application of skills, knowledge, techniques and tools to the activities of the project, so that
the requirements of the project can be achieved (Project management institute, 2018).
Disaster Resilience is the ability of individuals, organisations, and states to adopt and recover

Freetown based Disaster Resilient Project 2
themselves from shocks, stress or any hazard without compromising the long term prospects
for the development of organisations, states, communities, and individuals at international,
national, regional and local level (Combaz, 2015). This Project Planning Document Report is
based on Freetown, Sierra Leone mudslide. On 14 August 2017, a mudslide occurred in the
town situated near mountain area in Regent which is in the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra
Leone. The disaster swept away many homes, leaving the residents of that place anxious for
the news of their family members, who were struck in that mudslide (Varajão, Dominguez,
Ribeiro & Paiva, 2014). This report consists of three segments in which first is Description
and identification of the mudslide. It includes the basic data where this disaster occurred, the
definition of the problem in brief, major causes behind the disaster, local efforts taken in
order to solve the problem, VCA mapping and SWOT Analysis of the problem and lastly a
summary is presented explaining and describing the need for new project. The second part of
the report consists of preparing a Proposed Project Design. It consist brief description of the
new project, projection of the goals and objectives, giving reasons for why the solution is
appropriate, the benefits expected from the proposed project, giving the logical framework
for the proposed project. The last part of the report consists of Action Plan and
Implementation of the proposed project. It includes the steps to ensure community
participation, sustainability of the programme and barriers, challenges and recommendations
to address the community participation and sustainability of the new project. The final part of
the report consists of the results obtained from doing all the parts of the report.
Identification and Description of the problem
Description of problem

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The Disaster occurred due to massive landslide on 14 August 2017, 6:00 AM (As per local
time) in the western rural area in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. There was a
landslide in Babadorie River Valley which made the existing floods even worse. It had
affected both the rural and urban area affecting 6000 people of which, 1,141 residents were
declared either dead or missing. There was three days of continuous intense rainfall. The
Suger loaf, which is the highest peak in north of Western Peninsula Area was collapsed. The
impact of damage had varied by the geography. The river channels got wide. There are four
landslides occurred on that day. Due to heavy rains, the town experienced floods in several
locations which cover culvert area, Glanville Brook Watercourse where one of the city
rubbish dumps is situated. The huge flow of Babadorie River Valley had also caused flooding
in several valleys across the town. Flooding is one of the most common hazards than large
scale landsides in the town which affects almost all parts of Freetown during rainy season
(The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, 2018).
Causes
 Rainfall patterns vary across the peninsula- It is because of the atmospheric pressure
and localized topography.
 Rainfall in certain catchment is not determined- Available Data is not accurate and
there was limited number of weather stations.
 Weather data is not been reviewed and may require some specialists metrological
interpretation.
 It is an underdeveloped area- It is because of the atmospheric reasons that there is loss
of life, buildings, infrastructure and forest.
 There is no visit from the World Bank team as none of the slip was visited by the
World Bank team due to time and access constraints (Papadopoulosa, Gunasekaran,
Dubey, Altay, Childee, & Fosso-Wamba, 2017).

Freetown based Disaster Resilient Project 4
Local efforts:
The NGO Street Child is the first one to come up in support by providing emergency food.
The DaLA (Damage and Loss Assessment) was done by the government to identify the
preliminary needs for funds mobilization and launch of immediate recovery. Increase in
awareness of public and investment in the principal of BBB. There are three recovery plans
which are made which were the urgent short-term relief for 0-3 months. It includes response,
relief, measures to enhance multi-hazard risk information and logistics system. The Medium-
term resilient recovery which was for 3 months- 12 months. Lastly, long-term resilient
recovery for 1 year- 3 years. These include legal and institutional arrangements for social
sectors, measures to mainstream the disaster risk reduction in development sectors and
livelihood.
VCA Mapping
Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment is mythology for gathering information to increase
the awareness of risk and help the members of community to plan the activities to reduce the
vulnerability and increase the capacity before the happening of disasters (Global Publications,
2007). It has been divided in five components which are Well-being, livelihood, Self-
protection, governance, Social protection.In this mudslide, there were many of the policies
which needed to be fixed by the government of Freetown so as to reduce the effect of these
natural disasters which had happened in Freetown. In this case there is mudslide and floods
are the natural disasters and the initiative of the government needs to be revised to reduce the
effects, like:
 Town planning should be done keeping in mind the area and frequency of having
natural disasters at that time.

Freetown based Disaster Resilient Project 5
 Accurate weather report.
 Policies by government needs to be regulated
 Need for awareness is must so that every person individually can put some of the
efforts which are considered as one of the need of VCA Analysis.
 Mobility of people during that time needs to be regulated.
 Need for the up gradation of the technology so that communication will increase
which can make a positive impact in that situation.
 Arrangement of emergency funds which can serve as a biggest help in that
situation.
 Temporary displacement centres for citizens in case of emergency.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths: The international organisation for migration released $150,000 in emergency
funds to help the people affected by it. The incident manager which was appointed by
WPF has helped with the information management, coordination and the activities
conducted during the Assesment of needs.
Weakness: The rainfall patters is one of the major reasons for mudslide as the accurate
rainfall forecast data is not available in the place as that place is in the outskirts area
weather data is not previewed in a proper manner.
Opportunities: The response of WFP other international organisations served as the
biggest source for the recovery for the Freetown. Human resources were available readily
although some of them also affected from that situation but still people are ready to
support each other during the time.

Freetown based Disaster Resilient Project 6
Threats: Risk of developing the infrastructure again is a very crucial task as the loss is
very huge in terms of population and in terms of infrastructure as well. Density of the
land for the future use is also very big threat (Bull.et al., 2015).
Summary of the Proposed Project
The problem of mudslide in Freetown is very common like reoccurring floods, landslides
and mudslides which occur generally due to climate change. It has affected almost 13% of its
area and more than 35% of the population lives at risk. In Freetown, more than 220,000
affected by floods occur in Freetown in last 15 years (Harris, Wurie, Baingana, Sevalie, &
Beynon, 2018). So, it clearly visible that weather conditions and awareness of citizens is one
of the major and biggest reasons for the disasters. It can also become the reasons for the
poverty, underdevelopments and unemployment’s. These problems have also attracted many
other problems like urbanisation, technological advancement, employment opportunities,
improper town planning. Some of the objectives related to the same are listed below:
Objectives
 To reduce the impact of natural disaster, as it is a normal phenomenon the
Freetown.
 To upgrade the town planning.
 To increase the technological advancement.
 To increase the awareness of the citizens on natural disasters
 To increase the efficiency to make the policies regarding safety measures
(Guardian News and Media Limited, 2018).

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Proposed Project design
Project:
A Proposal Project Design is a description in detail of the activities related to solving
a particular problem. It contains logical presentation of research idea, significance of the idea,
and relationship of idea to past actions, join all the activities to proposed project. This project
is related with solving the problem and giving the appropriate solution to control the effect of
the mudslide which happened in Freetown. As the problem of mudslide, floods and landslide
is a common problem in this area and has affected citizens for a long time, so it needs to be
solved permanently. In this project, there is a description of the solution which can be
recommended to solve this problem (International Youth Foundation, 2008).
Goal and Objectives of project:
The basic objective of the Proposed Project Design is to control the effect of natural disasters.
In this case, mudslides and floods happened many times. So, to control the effect is the basic
necessity for the project. In order to do that, some of the points are given which are:
 Appropriate town planning: As, Freetown is situated near mountain area. It had a
history of natural disaster in past 15 years, so the possibility of mudslide, landslides
and floods are more in the future in this area, compared to the other areas. Town
planning must be done keeping in mind the problems. For this, there are various
organisations which are various Risk Management institutions who can guide the
people for the same. The Technological up gradation is a very big need for this town,
as it will help them to overcome the weather problem themselves and this can happen
only when the people are aware of the problem.

Freetown based Disaster Resilient Project 8
 Weather conditions report: It must be accurate, correct, relevant and reliable as it
will help government to make policies to control the effect at the time of disaster.
There are various climate control measures are taken into consideration like various
instruments to detect changes, change of vegetation and increase in fire risk.
 Emergency fund: There must be an emergency fund made by the government in the
Freetown for the same so that if that situation arises they don’t have financial problem
to overcome the disaster, government should make policies as well to protect the
citizens. There must be an option for citizens that, if due to this reason they want to
move out of the town or the disaster is so huge that it can create harm. The citizen
should have the option to move out of the town, in order to ensure their safety. There
should be proper arrangements for the same (International Labour organisation,
2010).
Reasons for Suitability of the project:
In the Propose Project design, the problems which are solved are information gap
by weather department. The mythologies used are easily adaptive by the local bodies like
open seminars to increase the awareness. Continuous comparison of disasters is done to
evaluate the outputs. The level of accuracy will be increased as this is one of the major
objectives of the proposed project. It is done to promote safety (Exposure Labs, 2018).
Expected Project Benefits:
 There would be less loss of humans as proper precautions are taken- In Freetown,
if proper planning is to be done then the effects of the disaster can be minimised.
Proper planning can decrease the loss as people are prepared for the disaster and
also they had taken preventive measures by themselves as well.

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 Technological development- It can help in improving the health conditions, as the
hospitals can afford latest technology which can help in better treatment.
 Employment generation- The employment generation can help in increasing the
employment level. An increase in employment level can attract more business and
investment in town, which in turn help in better town planning and government
can increase and manage the need for finance. It can also increase the local effort
at that time.
 Decrease in loss of money- The government and citizens are well prepared for the
damage and loss so they will calculate the loss. It can help them to reduce the
unnecessary expenditure that happened at that time due to inappropriate planning.
(Deutsche Welle, 2018).
Logical Framework:
1. Analysis Stage:
It includes many kinds of analysis which are Problem Analysis, Stakeholder
Analysis, Objective Analysis and Strategy Analysis.
1) Problem Analysis: It involves identification of problem and establishes effect
and cause relation which results in flow from these problems. In order to do a
problem analysis problem tree is prepared.

Freetown based Disaster Resilient Project 10
Problem Tree (Wolde, Amsalu, & Alemu, 2016).
2) Stakeholder Analysis: It helps in involving further identification of indicators
of the problem, the sources to verify the problem and the assumptions made
at the time of proposing a project. In this case the stakeholders are the people
affected by the disaster which are citizens of the town, government, the
international bodies helping at the time of disaster and people providing
funds.
Stakeholder analysis (Qoro, 2015).
Mudslide
Weather
conditions
Loss of
Infrastructu
re
Financial
Loss
Loss of
human
resources
Problem
Indicators
Weather
report
Human loss
Sources of
Verificatio
n
Data of
Weather
department
Disaster
management
Committee
Assumptio
n
Planned town
Aware
citizens

Freetown based Disaster Resilient Project 11
3) Objective Analysis: It has been prepared after the problem tree to find out the
basic objective and other objectives of the project. It can give the information
regarding the future information about the situation (Energy. Gov.,2018).
Objective Analysis (BBC, 2018).
2. Planning Stage:
Basis Reason Verifiable
Indicators
Verification
Sources
Assumption
Overall
objective
Decrease in
effect of disaster
Weather Report Data of weather
report
Well educated
people
Purpose of the
project
Awareness of
Citizens
Questionnaire Accurate
Questionnaire
Result obtained Decrease in
Death rate 15%-
20%
Sample testing Disaster
Management
Committee
Activities Awareness
Campaigns, tree
plantation, New
The Major objective is to control the natural disasters like
mudslide, floods and landslide which generally occure at that
place.
Major
Objective
It is very important to keep a check on weather report as not
getting weather report on time is also the basic problem in this
situation.
Specific
Objective
Control the death rates.
Growth of the town
Expected
Result