In the face of climate change threats and disaster crises, local communities are organizing, partnering and devising strategies to scale adaptation to climate change and disaster risk reduction actions that advance resilient development. These actions, and as the UN Commission on the Status of Women has recently reaffirmed the leadership of women's and girls in communities, are key to achieve progress on the implementation of global policy frameworks such as the Sendai Framework for DRR, the Paris Agreement and the SDGs, yet rarely do grassroots women, local communities and other local actors have a voice in the decisions that most affect them. We need to shift the status quo from current top-down approaches to a new model where local actors have greater decision making power, access to financial resources and institutional support to build resilience 

Partnerships between community-led organizations, local governments, multilateral and bilateral institutions and other development partners reinforces efforts to scale and accelerate the local implementation of national policies and global frameworks through resourcing community-based organizations, including women-led organizations, with flexible funds for learning, capacity building, innovation and integrating them into public decision making and policy spaces. Such collaboration also helps in empowering women and their communities and leads to transformative change. As community-based organizations are familiarized with and contribute to government mechanisms, policies and programs, and as government and other stakeholders become more familiar with the expertise in communities, collaborative plans emerge that accelerate progress in implementing the Sendai Framework.

Through a community of practice, in this session local actors and partners will share progress and lessons learned to enhance understanding of what is needed for effective, equitable locally led adaptation to climate change and disaster risk reduction, with a particular focus on partnerships and flexible financing.

Session objectives

1. To discuss how local actors, including women-led, community -based organizations in poor communities, scale up and accelerate the implementation of the Sendai Framework
2. To understand the challenges faced and opportunities for initiating and sustaining partnership between grassroots, community-based organizations, government and other institutional and financial partners to accelerate the implementation of the Sendai Framework
3. To identify immediate entry points for collaboration

This session seeks to raise awareness of disaster displacement and the need to integrate disaster displacement into local and national DRR strategies among GP22 participants. The Platform on Disaster Displacement, the Norwegian Refugee Council and partners will present the Platform’s DRR and Displacement Policy Brief and Key Messages and provide an overview of disaster displacement-related events taking place throughout the Platform. These include Ignite sessions, an exhibition on the Words into Action on disaster displacement guidance, checklist and elearning, and the engagement of artists, among others.

Session objectives

• Provide an introduction to the topic of disaster displacement along with an overview of strides made in international, regional and national policy processes and frameworks.
• Share key policy messages on disaster displacement.
• Learn and coordinate how partners plan to engage in disaster displacement advocacy at GP22.

To reach a sustainable and resilient world for all it is of importance that there is a policy coherence between all relevant policies at all levels, from local to international level.

The UNDRR Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism (UNDRR-SEM) is thereby engaging not just in solely disaster risk reduction avenues, but in all-hazard knowledge generation, climate change policy development, disaster risk financing and most importantly community empowerment. We have seen that resilience is dependent upon the capacity of a community to respond in times of crisis.

During the first half of the 2nd day of the 7th GPDRR Stakeholder Forum, its participants took part in interactive and outcome oriented smaller parallel sessions. The session will serve as an opportunity for all to learn of the outcomes from these parallel sessions.

Session Objectives 

•  Ensure that the knowledge generated from the Stakeholder Forum parallel sessions is shared among all stakeholder groups attendees and other participants in the Stakeholder Forum.
• Reduce the potential of silos among DRR stakeholders, and ensure coherence between actions of stakeholders engaged in implementing the Sendai Framework.
• Demonstrate that while we, as the stakeholders of DRR, may have specific areas of interest, we are working for a common goal, namely ensuring that all parts of society have enhanced capacity of managing striking hazards and that the risks of disasters to occur are minimised through structural changes and integration of risk-reduction in all development plans.

Online Attendance

This session will be live-streamed online. Note that it is live-streamlining and no active online participation. You can access the live streaming through this link: 

Watch the event recording here:

This ‘Words into Action’ event responded to stakeholders wanting to engage & support working with children & youth on DRR and CCA, but unsure where to start.  It introduced practical tools for governments, agencies, CSOs, the private sector, academia and scientists to support inclusive, gender responsive, child & youth engagement under the four priorities of the Sendai Framework and Paris Climate Agreement.

Children and youth, alongside the Children in a Changing Climate Coalition, shared experience, tools and guidance. This was followed by an intergenerational dialogue, and a ‘Children’s Call for Climate Action Now’, informed by the GP children and youth forum, regional consultations and the children’s climate cards to promote inclusivity & gender equity.

The session was structured by the four Sendai Priorities.  ‘Live scribing and cartooning’ innovatively captured key learning and ideas. The resulting session recommendations and vision aim to influence and inform the Sendai Framework stocktaking process, the progress joint statement and resulting GPDRR messages and outcomes, to ensure timely uptake of session vision and recommendations.   

Session objectives

1. SHARE practical experience, tools and guidance to engage and support working with children and youth on DRR and CCA under the Sendai Priority Frameworks 
2. EXCHANGE in an intergenerational discussion to advance meaningful and inclusive engagement of all children and youth on DRR and CCA going forward 
3. INSPIRE action going forward and engagement in the Children in a Changing Climate Coalition 
4. INFORM the stocktaking process of the Sendai Framework, the progress joint statement and resulting GPDRR messages and outcomes through session recommendations and vision

This online side event will: 

• Relook at changing forms of communication among stakeholders that are required for planning and evaluation, leaving nobody behind - children, youth across all generations, women and gender minorities, PWDs, ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, urban and rural poor, and so on. 
• Bring old and new methods of advertising and media together, from TV and radio to vlogs and podcasts, even to the up-and-coming Metaworld. We believe, if there is a future - it is together. 
• Analyze the role of social media as a powerful and revolutionary instrument for making DRR, Climate Change, and SDG decision-making more inclusive, participative, and empowering. 

Session objectives

1. To discuss and evaluate the various media's involvement in disaster risk management and climate action at the global, regional, national, and local levels. 
2. To identify significant knowledge & information gaps and possibilities to increase the role of media as a powerful and  transformative tool in making disaster risk reduction and climate action more inclusive and wide. 
3. To determine the most effective ways for media platforms to return power to marginalized groups and provide space and venues to share their stories in their voices, free of bias. 
4. To make a collective commitment from media partners, both private, public with state owned, the UN, and youth & children, to  improve new media collaboration for disaster risk reduction and   climate action. 

Disasters can affect everyone. However, individuals that belong to the most at-risk groups such as persons with disabilities face higher risks and are disproportionately affected due to a wide range of barriers, including stigma and discrimination. 

CBM, alongside its partners is promoting disability inclusive disaster risk reduction globally, including facilitating organizations of people with disabilities (OPDs) to participate in and lead DRR activities.

At this event, four panelists will present good practices and success stories from their roles in ensuring disability inclusion in DRR in a Covid-19 impacted world. 

The panel will:  

• stress the importance of the inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in humanitarian and development activities  
• highlight examples of persons with disabilities acting as important DRR resources and change agents within their communities  
• promote efforts for mainstreaming disability inclusion in DRR.

Session objectives

• Present key insights from the field from several contexts and identifying good practice as well as issues of concern in implementing DRR from perspectives of an OPD, a mainstream civil society network, government, the United Nations, academia, and a specialist organisation. 
• Encourage OPDs through success stories to claim their right for participation in DRR. 
• Set an example for a range of stakeholders on how to engage key players in disaster risk reduction programming and implementation for robust disability inclusion. 

While there are many discussions focusing on the challenges of infrastructure resilience, this side event will offer solutions for practitioners to achieving outcomes of infrastructure resilience. 

The purpose of the side event is to present the latest version of the Principles for Resilient Infrastructure and to provide practical solutions for infrastructure resilience to all levels of government, institutions, donors, investors, owners, regulators, operators, designers and contractors, service providers, and international organisations by demonstrating how the Principles and other tools can be implemented to contribute to positive economic, social and environmental outcomes. 

During this event, various stakeholders along with our co-organizers will discuss how the Principles and resilient infrastructure tools such as CDRI’s lexicon, OECD’s good governance for critical infrastructure resilience and ICE’s knowledge platforms can be applicable and implemented for specific sectors and industries, as well as holistically to achieve infrastructure resilience. 

Session objectives

With the overall intention of raising awareness and understanding on resilience of infrastructure, the objectives of the side event are to:  

1. Present the Principles for Resilient Infrastructure Report 
2. Elaborate on the concept of ‘net resilience gain’ 
3. Illustrate how to implement the Principles for Resilient Infrastructure  
4. Introduce policy instruments and tools for resilient infrastructure (CDRI’s lexicon, OECD’s Good Governance for Critical Infrastructure Resilience and ICE’s knowledge platforms) 

Registration 

In the management and governance of both natural and technological hazards and risks, understanding of multi-hazard and multisector risks is becoming increasingly relevant – and challenging, as acknowledged in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and more recently, translated into the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (EFDRR) Roadmap 2021-2030, among other DRR-related strategies.  Extreme weather-events, many of which are in turn hydro-meteorological events (floods, droughts, landslides or storms), are increasing due to the changing climate. More intense and more frequent extreme whether events may have cascading effects, triggering technological disasters. A clear governance response to climate change in the context of technological risks is still to be developed in many countries. This session will discuss challenges and good examples of how countries and organizations worldwide address the link between climate change, natural hazards and technological risk management in transboundary lakes and river basins, with a focus on governance.  

Session objectives

The session aims to: 

1. Enhance understanding of how good practices and multi-hazard/multi-risk approaches can be mainstreamed into DRR strategies and governance structures, notably national platforms and river/lake basins organisations. 
2. Present examples on how governance can be enhanced through implementation of international legal instruments, notably the Water and Industrial Accidents Conventions. 
3. Discuss how the Sendai Framework and the EFDRR Roadmap 2021-2030 can inspire further actions to strengthen governance and risk management. 
4. Identify challenges and good practices in countries developing transboundary cooperation mechanisms. 
5. Highlight how actions strengthening governance and transboundary cooperation can support the cross-fertilization of SDGs. 

Participate in this session 

The Reception and Poster Session will offer an opportunity for MHEWC-III attendees to network and learn from the poster presenters about early warning initiatives.

MHEWC-III Posters

Posters will provide an opportunity for presenters to showcase their early warning initiatives. A selection of posters will be printed and showcased at the MHEWC-III in the Bali International Convention Center (BICC), Bali, Indonesia. Posters will also be showcased on the Conference website. Successful applicants will be invited to attend the poster session in person on 23 May 2022 and discuss the content of their posters with attendees during a Poster Session.

Posters will be showcased by from the following entities, covering topics on early warning systems that enable early action to save lives and livelihoods:

•      National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs)
•      Research and academia
•      Regional organizations
•      Civil protection agencies
•      The international community
•      Private sector entities
•      Other stakeholders

This in-person Side Event will highlight the progress of implementation of inclusive DRR actions with “Dhaka Declaration” and share the innovative approaches implemented by each stakeholder from different region. 

Amid COVID-19 situation, disasters have continued to affect disproportionally to disadvantageous groups including the persons with disabilities. 

Government of Bangladesh has taken strong initiatives to promote inclusive disaster risk reduction after applying SFDRR. “Dhaka Declaration” was adopted in December 2015 and the evolved version of “Dhaka Declaration+” was adopted in May 2018 through International Conference on Disability and Disaster Risk Management. 

Article 59 of Chair’s Summary in GPDRR 2017 pointed out “The Global Platform recognized the importance of the Dhaka Declaration on Disability and Disaster Risk Management as practical guidance”. 

In the GPDRR 2019, Bangladesh organized the Side Event. Reflecting on the discussions, Article 37 of Co-Chair’s Summary stressed the importance of implementation for local inclusive practices by each stakeholder. 

Session objectives

1. Review the global progress and local actions of implementation of Dhaka Declaration as well as different initiatives in inclusive DRR amid pandemic situations 
2. Share an innovative and integrated approach of different stakeholders’ experiences and challenges of inclusive disaster risk management 
3. Demonstrate global good practices on inclusive disaster risk reduction planning, response and reconstruction 
4. Extract key elements and strategies for moving forward to achieve the goals of SFDRR and SDGs through action of Dhaka Declaration