The Girl and The Tsunami is the story of Martina, a 12 year old girl who saved her community in the tsunami of 2010 in the island of Juan Fernandez, Chile. This is an animated documentary based on real events. It is presented by the producers, Emiliano Rodriguez Nuesch from PACIFICO and Bernardo Aliaga from UNESCO. This documentary celebrates unknown heroes like Martina who take the lead to protect their communities in a moment of crisis. This story also aims to trigger a conversation about tsunamis before they happen, and help us build a new connection of respect with the ocean.

Disasters in the State of Rio de Janeiro have occurred with frequency and intensity and accompany the disorderly expansion of urban areas due to global climate change. The government of the State of Rio de Janeiro, through the Secretary of State for Civil Defense, concerned with this increase in adverse events, implemented several public policies aimed at reducing the risk of disasters in the summer period. This is when there is the greatest increase in occurrences.

Rio de Janeiro State developed a Contingency Plan for heavy rains in the summer period 2021-2022. This contingency plan aims to guide complementary actions in support of local governments that have their response capacity partially or substantially compromised. The plan guides preparedness and response actions in the event of a disaster caused by heavy rains. These rains cause multiple disasters with geological and hydrological consequences (landslides, floods, flash floods).

This recording presents the framework for integrating human rights and gender equality (FIRE) into DRR. It describes the six dimensions of the Framework and introduces a number of practical tools that have been developed based on FIRE. The Framework is a major output of the Building Resilience through Inclusive and Climate-Adaptive Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia-Pacific (BRDR) programme, which brought together the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Stockholm Environment Institute and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency.

DARAJA, which means ‘bridge’ in Swahili, is a service and partnership that aims to improve weather and climate information services (WCIS), including early warnings of extreme weather for urban users. By adopting a systems-wide approach, DARAJA builds ‘bridges’ and operational partnerships between the actors critical to the co-design of the products, dissemination channels and feedback loops for weather forecasts and extreme weather alerts. The DARAJA service has been piloted already in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam with strong impact results. These included a 20:1 benefit cost ratio (BCR) in enhanced productivity and avoided climate related damage and loss to users. The service is also being adapted for deployment into Small Island States (SIDS) via a demonstrator for the Caribbean based in Kingston, Jamaica (IDB).

This presentation is a direct invitation to participants to join the science-policy interface expert group that is tackling the global governance of Global Catastrophic Risks. These types of risks are low probability/high impact events that can bring humanity to collapse and they are also defined as events where more than 10% of the human population is lost (misaligned AI, nuclear winter, super-volcanic eruptions, extreme consequences of climate change, among others). The group's mission is to build an expert network that is capable of effectively working to support the global governance of GCR by the use of scientific evidence and diplomacy.

Exposure to natural disasters and changing weather patterns caused by climate change are making it harder for farmers in Indonesia to provide their families with adequate levels of food security and a decent household income.

Rural communities bear the brunt of protracted droughts, and extreme and unpredictable rainfall result in a compromised natural resource base and a reduction in resilience to cope when disasters strike.  Rains increasingly do not arrive at the expected time; or at other times they arrive in the form of severe weather events resulting in catastrophic flooding and landslides that damage or destroy agriculture land and essential infrastructure.

To assist farmers faced with these conditions, World Neighbors and the Institute Technology Bandung have developed climate smart agricultural digital technology, which is helping rural communities adapt their farming cycles to the changing climate and to be better prepared for potential hydrometeorological disasters.  

These digital tools provide short weather and long-term climate forecasts, together with guidance on adjusting crop and agricultural cycles to match the conditions. The information is detailed down to the village level, giving farmers critical information on when, where, and how much rain will fall, the opportune time to plant and what type of crops are most suitable for the conditions. 

The Android and Windows-based apps are multi-functional, and among the many benefits they bring are the capacity to better predict the potential for hydrometeorological disasters and to plan accordingly.  So through the app, we’re able to provide early warnings to villages that there will be heavy rainfall with the potential for flooding. A major part of our work at World Neighbors is training village-level disaster management groups who, with this information, are then able to take appropriate preparedness action.  

By improving climate adaptive capacities, farmers improve their yields, leading to increased food security and economic returns.  And while we cannot stop hazards from arising, through increasing resilience to climate change, and by getting the information to those most at risk so that they can adequately anticipate and prepare, we can minimize the risk of hazards turning into disasters.