Education for sustainable development (ESD) is one of the central themes of SEAMEO INNOTECH’s 8th Five-Year Development Plan. As a concrete contribution to this broad theme, the Center embarked on developing a regional toolkit that focuses on more specific sub-themes: education in emergencies (EiE) and disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM).

EiE and DRRM are two of the main pillars of ESD contributing to the goal of creating resilient and sustainable school communities. UNESCO describes the strategic role of education for disaster reduction as addressing three key activity areas:

1. saving lives and preventing injuries should a hazardous event occur;
2. preventing interruptions to the provision of education, or to ensure its swift resumption in the event of an interruption; and
3. developing a resilient population that is able to reduce the economic, social and cultural impacts should a hazardous event occur.

The TOOLKIT FOR BUILDING DISASTER-RESILIENT SCHOOL COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA is a modest attempt of the Center to collate several existing planning tools, personal disaster- related experiences and stories, reference materials, and school-based DRRM innovations and good practices revolving around internationally-recognized frameworks as a contribution in strengthening the education sector as a strategic partner in building disaster-resilient school communities.

The Toolkit was first printed in 2014 and an eBook version was developed in 2015.