Participation to design, implementation and evaluation of DRR programmes is essential and enshrined in relevant policy and legal framework. People from at-risk groups often participate through their representative organisations. 

Representative organisations:

• Are led, directed and governed by persons from the at-risk group themselves.
• Have a clear majority of their membership consisting of persons from the at-risk group themselves.
• Are committed to and fully respect the principles and rights recognized in the relevant policy frameworks protecting the rights of the at-risk group.
• Are established predominantly with the aim of collectively acting, expressing, promoting, pursuing and/or defending the rights of the at-risk group.
• May represent one or more constituencies/at-risk groups.
• Can be local, national, regional or international in scope.

Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) are organisations made up of persons with disabilities to represent the rights and interests of their members. OPDs, like the disability community, are diverse. Some OPDs represent people with all impairment types, while others may focus on a particular impairment type, gender, sectoral issue, or represent geographical areas (local, provincial, national, regional or international). OPDs can be organized to represent a particular constituency (e.g., women with disabilities or indigenous persons with disabilities), as well as specific groups within such constituencies (e.g., women with albinism).

Be aware that there are groups within the disability movement that have traditionally been less included or harder to reach such as: persons who are deafblind, persons with intellectual disabilities, persons with psycho-social disabilities, persons with albinism.

Women are often organized in local women-led organisations (WLO) and women’s rights organisations (WRO) which can play critically important roles in DRR and crisis response. At regional and international level, there are networks with a specific focus on DRR such as the Women’s International Network on Disaster Risk Reduction (WIN DRR). Women with disabilities and women from cultural minorities remain at the intersection of gender inequality and the marginalization resulting from disability, language, ethnicity or language and often find themselves insufficiently represented. They are starting to organise in networks or alongside women’s organisations.

Older persons are increasingly organising themselves into networks and associations, called Older People’s Associations (OPA). They are usually led in majority by older men and women and promote the rights and inclusion of their members and older people in general.  

How to contact them?

Contact the international representative organisations beforehand at their headquarters. They will probably have information about specific countries and contacts to provide. At country level, representative organisations might be registered with the relevant national authority or registry of social ministry at local levels. Disability and age specific NGOs will also be able to put you in contact with these organisations. There are international OPD networks that can provide information about their regional and national OPD members, such as International Disability Alliance (IDA).