Read this section to learn more about the topic of current data challenges and identify possible solutions. 

Where do we stand 

Urgent efforts to scale-up the collection, analysis and reporting of disaster-related statistics are key to achieve the Sendai Framework, and hence SDG targets, by 2030. 

The 7 targets and 38 indicators of the Sendai Framework lay out an ambitious agenda to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risk. However, achieving these goals is not the only challenge. Monitoring progress towards the Sendai Framework Targets represents an arduous yet crucial task for national statistical systems. While the past seven years have seen a substantial increase in reporting rates – a total of 153 countries are now reporting across different Sendai targets – significant data gaps prevail.   

The under-representation of disaster impact – especially that of extensive disasters – and issues of data generation, incomplete records, lack of disaggregation and granularity, etc. are hampering our understanding of the full impact of disasters across time, geographies and sectors.  

Effective disaster risk reduction policy and action requires functioning disaster loss and risk information systems that can provide reliable and timely data, statistics and analysis. This is a key enabling condition for countries to develop and implement DRR strategies and investment that are tailored to specific risk contexts, vulnerabilities, impacts and needs. 

Therefore, coordinated global, national and local efforts to strengthen data generation and statistical capacities for disaster impact and risk analysis must be scaled-up. This would allow for a sound evidence base to be used in DRR and climate change decision making, policy, planning and investment. It will also contribute to greater coherence and synergies from holistic information management across UN instruments, including the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. 

Key guiding questions are: 

• How can we meet the growing demands for disaster-related statistics, while coping with the resulting complexity? 
• How can global, regional, national and local-level actions be scaled up to produce and use more timely, accurate, disaggregated and granular DRR data? 
• How can we ensure accessibility of DRR data?  
• How can we strengthen evidence-informed and data-backed decision making for DRR and climate change policy and action, including through coordination among stakeholders? 
• How can we scale up the data revolution for DRR and climate action, including through new technologies and innovations?

What do you need to know about disaster displacement and the links between climate change, disaster risk reduction, data and governance in advance of this session? 

Where do we stand? 

The exposure and vulnerability of persons to disaster displacement is multicausal and driven by political, social and economic factors, among others, and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To avoid the negative impacts of disaster displacement, risk governance must be strengthened. It needs to be evidence-based and place at-risk or affected communities at the center of action; this includes displaced people and communities in their areas of return, refuge or alternative settlement. It needs to draw on Human Rights standards, and existing guidance such as the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and Durable Solutions Frameworks.  

Effective and comprehensive responses to the risks of disaster displacement are required at all levels, but challenges include: 

• Weak or insufficient governance; 
• Gaps in data and evidence and barriers to its effective use to inform governance; 
• Coordination challenges to the integrated implementation of DRR with other policy areas such as human rights, humanitarian action, sustainable development, climate action and human mobility; 
• Insufficient capacity at all levels to address disaster displacement coherently. 

However, there are tools and existing effective practices to take guidance and learn from, which include: 

• The Words into Action Guidelines, Checklist and eLearning; 
• International standards and guidance on displacement of relevance for human mobility and DRR; 
• Experiences and learnings from the local, national and regional levels where specific stakeholders’ commitments will be presented at this event. 

Session guiding questions 

• In what ways can data strengthen governance, and what are the key challenges? 
• Why is it important to ensure coherence between DRR and other policy areas? 
• How can the Words into Action Guidelines, Checklist and eLearning support the inclusion of disaster displacement into DRR strategies and policies? 
• How can we ensure meaningful and inclusive participation of those affected by, or at risk of displacement, in data collection and governance? 

Read this section to learn more about the topic of adaptive social protection, ensuring you come prepared to the session.  

Where do we stand?

Building resilience means addressing the root causes of vulnerability, including social exclusion and discrimination, lack of assets, skills, and access to resources, services, and opportunities. A greater emphasis is being placed on the role that social protection can play in supporting individuals, households, and communities to reduce vulnerability and prepare for shocks. Yet some progress challenges remain including: 

• Those left uncovered by social protection systems are often the most marginalised: Only 46.9 percent of the global population are effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit.
• Many social protection systems still are not shock responsive and are not adequately adaptable to anticipate and prevent shocks from transforming into crises. 
• There is still limited evidence around the effectiveness of adaptive social protection systems to reduce inequalities and deliver protection to those most vulnerable to climate and disaster impacts. 

At the same time, adaptive social protection systems are a promising approach to increase the resilience of people and societies, even when they face multiple and interlinked risks. Specifically, adaptive social protection systems can do this by: 

• Combining different sectoral approaches and leveraging capacities across government, non-government and humanitarian actors to help to manage risk. 
• Focusing on the most vulnerable to disasters when expanding coverage. 
• Prepositioning risk financing to ensure funding is readily available.  
• Investing in systems and planning to support responsive programming after a shock. 

Session guiding questions  

• How can social protection systems be further leveraged to ensure implementation of the Sendai Framework is inclusive and leaves no one behind? 
• How do the existing efforts on adaptive social protection contribute to the broader DRR agenda and to what extent are DRR stakeholders engaged with strengthening social protection systems? 
• How is power devolving to ensure those who have been left behind in the progress made towards the achievement of the Sendai targets are supported and empowered to lead DRR efforts? 

Read More:

• Five facts on Adaptive Social Protection
• Adaptive Social Protection micro course

Read this section to learn more about the topic of inclusive and resilient recovery in urban contexts, ensuring you come prepared to the session. 

Where do we stand? 

Urban areas face increasingly complex risks. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, threatening cities and citizens. At the same time, many local governments continue to operate under severe resource constraints while dealing with consecutive and compound disasters. Vulnerable groups, such as women and girls, people with disabilities, migrants, and informal workers, are particularly affected. 
However, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 highlights the opportunity of enhancing the capacity of cities to rebound from hazards and disasters. National and local authorities around the world are increasingly adopting a partnership approach to risk resilience. Disaster risk management and climate change adaptation is increasingly being incorporated into municipal policies. In many cases, this is translating into increased investment in disaster risk reduction across sectors and at different levels. 

Session guiding questions 

• What steps are cities taking to address climate emergency and how can civil society and academia strengthen their partnership with local governments? 
• What are the best practices in urban settings for a socially inclusive recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis? 
• How can the Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative (MCR2030) scale up its practical support to local governments to prevent and reduce disaster risk? 
• What are the main learnings and recommendations on recovery in urban contexts for the years to come? 

Read more on risk-informed investments and why they are important to reduce disaster risk.  

Where do we stand?  

Investing in disaster risk reduction (DRR) is a precondition for developing sustainably in a rapidly changing climate. DRR investments can be achieved and make good financial sense. Yet, they are not carried out to the extent required. Public and private investment decisions typically: 

• Don’t consider how an investment may be creating disaster risk in terms of exposure and vulnerability at multiple levels, including national, local, and landscape. 
• Don’t include costs of disasters and benefits of risk mitigation in financial modeling and on balance sheets. Thus, such costs and benefits remain either external to, or are undisclosed in, private and financial sector investment decision-making. 
• Treat disaster and climate risks as temporally remote, limited, uncertain, and/or unquantifiable at the level of an individual project and, thus, externalize them. 

Though action is lagging, the combined effect of COVID-19 and increasing disaster risk from the climate emergency, provide todays leaders, investors, and decision makers with a unique opportunity to invest in public and private funds in a resilient way for a green, sustainable future. 

To this end, governments should endeavor to make all financial investments resilient to disasters and to ensure that they do not create new risks. At the same time, the private and financial sector also need to lead and foster risk-informed business behaviors that include reporting and disclosure of material, long-term sustainability risks, as well as impact reporting on how companies are contributing to resilience aligned with the Sendai Framework, Paris Climate Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.

Session guiding questions  

• How can disaster and climate risk reduction measures be better embedded into public and private investments? 
• What are key obstacles/barriers to reducing disaster risk in public and private investments and how can they be overcome? 
• What are examples of policies, programs, measures that resulted in investments that have successfully integrated risk reduction measures? 
• What was your/your institutions’ decision-making process that led to a risk-informed investment? Provide examples of the competencies, capacities and tipping-points that catalyzed and led to action.  
• How can different stakeholders (regulators, private investors, policy makers, civil society, academia, intergovernmental organizations, etc.) catalyze action to better align public and private investment strategies, operations and activities with the Sendai Framework? 
• What are the unique challenges of LDCs and SIDS in embedding disaster and climate risk in public and private investments and how can these be addressed?