Meanings and constraints: processes shaping vulnerability reduction in Philippine National Red Cross disaster preparedness initiatives.

Community-based initiatives have also been instrumental in increasing the responsibility placed upon communities and their institutions, in implementing measures designed to
reduce vulnerability, without granting increased powers or means to tackle the root cause of vulnerability. Control of project processes remains vested largely in the Philippine National Red Cross, donor organisations and local government actors.
Finally, community-based approaches have served to shift the focus away from wider - often more politically sensitive - factors impacting vulnerability, which supersede community-level control and responsibility. There is a danger of community-based approaches unwittingly contributing to the `depoliticisation' of issues surrounding vulnerability.