Draft 0.1, 29 September 2026. Visible to administrators only, for review before publication.
Module 0: Why this programme: RAGCED's role before and after a disaster
Reading time about 20 minutes, workshop about 45 minutes. For Rotarians in clubs and districts, and for the local leaders they train.
What you will be able to do
- Explain in two sentences the two mandates The Rotary Foundation has entrusted to RAGCED, and what RAGCED does not do.
- Place any disaster-related action on the four times of a disaster: before, during, after, and normal times.
- Say what community economic development (CED) means in practice for a club.
- Know who to call in Rotary for what: club, district, Foundation, RAGCED, DNA-RAG and other action groups.
- Choose the modules of this programme that your club needs first.
Why it matters
According to RAGCED's president, The Rotary Foundation has given RAGCED two new mandates: to train communities before a disaster strikes, and to design projects and programmes that restart the economy of affected areas after a disaster. RAGCED does not take part in immediate relief, which other organisations such as ShelterBox already provide. This programme is RAGCED's answer to the first mandate and its preparation for the second. It gives clubs and districts a shared method: know the territory, prepare the community, and when disaster comes, be ready to help people earn a living again.
Community meeting on rebuilding options after a tornado, organized with local service clubs (Greensburg, Kansas, USA, 7 June 2007). Photo: FEMA / Greg Henshall, public domainTwo mandates, one exclusion
RAGCED's work on disasters rests on three simple statements.
Mandate 1: prepare communities before a disaster. Train Rotarians and the communities they serve so that they know their risks, organise themselves and protect their livelihoods in advance.
Mandate 2: restart the local economy after a disaster. Design projects and programmes that bring back jobs, income, markets and local businesses once the emergency is over.
The exclusion: no immediate relief. Rescue, emergency shelter, first aid and the first days of the response belong to emergency services and to specialised organisations. ShelterBox is one of them. Within Rotary, the action group dedicated to disaster assistance (DNA-RAG) coordinates the response. If your club needs guidance for the first hours and days, use the Disaster Field Guide, free online at https://disasterfieldguide.org/. This programme does not repeat it.
These mandates fit what Rotary International expects from every Rotary Action Group. Rotary's Code of Policies asks action groups to serve as a resource to clubs and districts, with technical advice on project planning and implementation, best practices, guides, and in-person or virtual learning opportunities. A training programme is exactly that.
The four times of a disaster
Disaster work is often pictured as a single moment: the day the earthquake, the flood or the cyclone hits. In reality it is a cycle. Emergency management practice describes four connected phases: prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. A community economic recovery toolkit published in Canada in 2019 adds two lessons that shape this programme. First, long-term recovery can take years or even decades. Second, the capacities a community needs to recover its economy are built in calm times, and they are the same as those of ordinary economic development: knowing local businesses, having relationships with lenders, keeping employers, having a plan.
For RAGCED, the cycle reads as four times:
| Time | What happens | RAGCED's place |
|---|---|---|
| Before | Know the risks, organise, train, protect livelihoods | Mandate 1 |
| During | Rescue, shelter, first aid, emergency supplies | Not RAGCED |
| After | Restart jobs, businesses and markets | Mandate 2 |
| Normal times | Community economic development | RAGCED's core work |
The last line matters. RAGCED is not a disaster organisation that also does economics. It is an economic development network whose skills become decisive before and after a disaster. A club that runs a microfinance programme, a training course or a cooperative in normal times already has what recovery needs: partners, trust, data and people who know how local money circulates.
What community economic development means
RAGCED's bylaws define its purpose: to be a source of knowledge and expertise to help plan, implement and manage impactful and sustainable economic development projects, and to create lasting change in poor and underserved communities.
On its website, RAGCED describes investing in communities in several forms:
- building the capacity of local entrepreneurs and social businesses through education, microcredit, mentoring and networking;
- empowering local leaders, organisations and networks to support economic development;
- developing opportunities for rewarding work and access to sustainable livelihoods;
- training and skills development for marginalised communities;
- environmental projects that make communities economically resilient;
- disaster preparedness: strengthening communities' ability to face climate-related hazards and natural disasters, and supporting community-based emergency preparedness to improve economic resilience.
Rotary International presents RAGCED mainly through microfinance: it connects clubs and districts with microfinance institutions to help people establish income-generating activities. That is the historic heart of the group. Its scope today is wider: vocational training, value chains, cooperatives and integrated local development are all tools of community economic development.
Three principles run through all of them, and through this programme:
- The community decides. Rotary's own guidance warns against arriving with ideas of what is needed. Listen first.
- Work with those whose job it is. The club finances, connects and follows up. A microfinance institution lends, a training centre trains, a cooperative produces.
- Aim for sustainability. Rotary defines it as the ability to operate a project or programme on its own without support from Rotary.
After a disaster, these principles are even more important. Grants and donations arrive quickly, then stop. What remains is the local economy: the shops, farms, workshops and jobs that let families rebuild on their own.
How RAGCED fits into Rotary
Rotary works in layers. Each has its own role, and RAGCED works through them, not around them.
- The club is closest to the community. It knows the territory, the people and the local actors. It carries the project, signs with local partners and reports on the money.
- The district coordinates clubs, supports them, and co-finances projects with Foundation grants. The district governor is the entry point: under Rotary policy, an action group contacts clubs with the district governor's permission.
- The Rotary Foundation funds projects. District grants fund small-scale, short-term activities. Global grants support large international activities within Rotary's areas of focus, with sustainable, measurable outcomes. The Foundation also has a Cadre of Technical Advisers, volunteer Rotarians who give technical advice on grant projects. RAGCED's bylaws provide for a Technical Officer drawn from this Cadre, who serves as the liaison between the two.
- Rotary Action Groups are independent, international, Rotary-affiliated groups whose members have expertise in a specific field. They advise, connect clubs with partners inside and outside Rotary, and help them plan projects. They have no authority over clubs or districts.
As Rotary policy requires, RAGCED states it clearly: RAGCED operates in accordance with Rotary International policy, but it is not an agency of, or controlled by, Rotary International.
RAGCED and the other action groups
Rotary's rules say that a new action group must not conflict with the purposes of an existing one. Each group therefore has its own field, and a disaster usually calls for several of them.
| Need | Action group |
|---|---|
| Disaster response coordination | Disaster Assistance, dna-rag.com |
| Livelihoods, jobs, local businesses | Community Economic Development, RAGCED |
| Water, sanitation, hygiene | WASH-RAG.org |
| Environment and climate resilience | esrag.org |
| Displaced people | Refugees, ragforrefugees.org |
| Peacebuilding | rotaryactiongroupforpeace.org |
The practical rule for a club is simple. When disaster strikes, the district and DNA-RAG are the first Rotary contacts. As soon as the question becomes "how will people earn a living again?", bring RAGCED in. The earlier the better: an economic recovery plan prepared during the response avoids aid that competes with local shops or leaves no lasting income.
The RAGCED website section Disaster Management Training also links to two external references: the Incident Command System maintained by ICS Canada, and FEMA's resources for individuals and communities.
The learning path
The programme has eight modules. Modules 1 to 3 serve the first mandate (before). Module 4 is the bridge. Modules 5 to 7 serve the second mandate (after).
| # | Module | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Why this programme | All |
| 1 | Knowing your risks and assessing your community | Before |
| 2 | Preparing your community | Before |
| 3 | The club and the district in preparedness | Before |
| 4 | From emergency response to recovery | Bridge |
| 5 | Restarting the local economy | After |
| 6 | Financing recovery | After |
| 7 | Sustainability, monitoring and scaling up | After |
You can follow the modules in order, or start where your club stands. A club in a quiet period should start with Module 1. A club whose territory has just been hit, once the emergency is handled by others, should read Module 4, then Module 5.
Workshop
Where does our club stand in the four times? (45 minutes, club board or disaster committee)
- Ten minutes, alone. Each participant writes down one action the club has taken in the past years that relates to a disaster, to preparedness, or to local economic development.
- Fifteen minutes, together. Place each action on a large sheet divided into four columns: Before, During, After, Normal times. Discuss where the gaps are.
- Ten minutes, contacts. Check that the club knows, by name and function, its district governor, the district contact for disasters, the district Rotary Foundation chair, and a contact at DNA-RAG and at RAGCED. Note the missing ones.
- Ten minutes, decision. Choose the first module the club will work on, and name one person to lead it.
Checklist for the end of the session:
- ☐ The two RAGCED mandates and the exclusion are understood by everyone present.
- ☐ Each column of the four times has at least one action, or a gap has been named.
- ☐ Missing Rotary contacts are listed, with someone in charge of finding them.
- ☐ The next module and its lead are chosen, with a date.
Key takeaways
- RAGCED has two disaster mandates: train communities before, restart the local economy after. It does not do immediate relief.
- A disaster is a cycle of four times. RAGCED works before, after, and above all in normal times, where recovery capacities are built.
- Community economic development means jobs, income, skills and local businesses, carried by local partners and designed with the community.
- Clubs carry projects, districts coordinate and co-finance, the Foundation funds, action groups advise and connect. DNA-RAG leads on response; RAGCED joins as soon as livelihoods are at stake.
- RAGCED is not an agency of, or controlled by, Rotary International.
Go further
From Guillaume Bourgogne's books:
- Disaster Field Guide, chapter 1 "Why this book" and chapter 2 "The Rotary ecosystem for disaster response" (free at https://disasterfieldguide.org/).
- Guide to community economic development for Rotary clubs (in preparation): chapter 0 "Doctrine and minimum standard", chapter 1 "Why this book", chapter 2 "The Rotary ecosystem for CED", chapter 17 "RAGCED as an expertise partner", chapter 18 "Other complementary action groups".
Public resources:
- RAGCED website and bylaws: https://mwt95.wildapricot.org/
- Rotary International, Rotary Action Groups: www.rotary.org/actiongroups, actiongroups@rotary.org
- Rotary International, Economic and Community Development Project Strategies (brochure).
- Community Toolkit for Economic Recovery and Resiliency, Canadian version, 2019.
- ICS Canada: https://icscanada.ca/
- FEMA, individuals and communities: https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/individuals-communities
After running this module in your club, please send your feedback (a pre-filled email), or fill in the feedback sheet in the workshop sheets and send a photo of it. It helps RAGCED improve the programme.
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