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Session objectives

• Acknowledge and thank the host country (Indonesia), sponsors, speakers, and participants
• Summarize the key findings from WRC5 by sharing joint communique
• Set the scene for WRC6
• Welcome participants to the GPDRR

Expected Outcome:

Participants will leave the session with a clear understanding and sense of enthusiasm about new approaches to recovery and will advocate for their adoption in the GPDRR as well as their work in the future.

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The World Reconstruction Conference (WRC) is a global forum that provides a platform for policy makers, experts, and practitioners from government, international organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the academia, and private sector from both developing and developed countries to come together to collect, assess, and share experiences in disaster recovery and reconstruction and take forward the policy dialogue. Traditionally, the WRC is organized by three partners (EU, UNDP, World Bank) in conjunction with the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction; this year, the International Recovery Platform is joining as a partner.

Hosted by the Government of Indonesia, WRC5 will take place on 24 and 25th May 2022 under the theme “Reconstructing for a sustainable future: Building resilience through recovery in a COVID-19 Transformed World”. The WRC5 will focus on addressing the unprecedented socio-economic recovery needs as a pathway to rebuilding a resilient and sustainable society in the post Covid-19 world. The conference will be organized under three sub-themes: 1) addressing the social and economic effects and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on “hard-won” development gains, 2) social, infrastructural and economic recovery from disasters as an opportunity to reset the development pathway towards a greener and resilient future, and 3) rethinking recovery governance models: planning, financing and managing recovery from complex and interconnected disaster-conflict events in the post Covid-19 world.

Session objectives

• Welcome participants and speakers to the fifth WRC;
• Highlight the theme and sub-themes of the conference;
• Recognize the role of the host and partners; and
• Outline the expectations and structure of the two-day conference.

Outcome

Participants have a clear understanding of the purpose, structure, design, and expected outcomes of WRC 5.

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The COVID-19 health impacts and containment measures have caused sharp decline in economic activity, jobs and livelihoods, and negative repercussions on health, education and value-chain related services. It has disproportionately affected the most vulnerable and exacerbated inequalities in human development. As a result, the pandemic has negatively impacted hard-won development gains of the 2030 Agenda.

Given the vast scale of impacts, the diversity of ensuing needs and resource requirements, a multi-sectoral response was needed. Early in the pandemic, pre-existing assessment methodology was adapted to the epidemic context as COVID-19 Recovery Needs Assessments (CRNAs). The CRNA delivers macro, meso and micro level analysis and develops prioritized recovery needs with costs under a coordinated and government-owned process, ensuring alignment of the development community behind one comprehensive government-wide strategy which can be converted to common planning and financing outcomes. The findings support development of a comprehensive recovery strategy and recovery programs.

Session objectives

This plenary session will share knowledge and experience to advance COVID-19 recovery. It will provide a broad overview of key approaches used worldwide to identify and address the social and economic impact of COVID 19, how well they worked and lessons for strengthening resilience and reducing the pandemic’s impact.

Specific objectives:

• To share experience on how COVID 19 pandemic has impacted development gains and avenues to reverse the trend.
• To take stock of best practices and challenges for identifying and addressing the impacts of COVID 19 pandemic
• To share lessons from the implementation of national and regional recovery frameworks

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A greener, more resilient and inclusive approach to recovery will help repair structural damage caused by COVID-19 and accelerate climate change mitigation and adaption efforts while restoring momentum on poverty reduction and shared prosperity. This integrated approach seeks to achieve more sustainable and equitable recovery and growth by: i) promoting investments in “greener” systems of production and consumption; ii) supporting resilience building to a variety of shocks to avoid diverting scarce resources to repeated cycles of shock, restructuring, recovery, and rebuilding; and iii) ensuring that recovery is inclusive and does not leave anyone behind.

This session will outline how the world has been transformed since WRC4 and highlight opportunities for improving disaster recovery planning and management to be more sustainable, inclusive and resilient. The session will delve into the policy, strategic and operational challenges and approaches for ensuring that disaster recovery can foster and catalyze greener and resilient development.

Objectives

• Clarify how recovery opportunities and challenges have changed and become more complex since WRC4 with the advent of the pandemic;
• Identify challenges and opportunities for more sustainable, inclusive and resilient recovery.
• Tease out the various elements and modalities of making social, economic and infrastructural recovery more resilient and sustainable.
• Develop a roadmap of specific policy, strategic and operational measures for ensuring that disaster recovery can in turn promote greener and resilient development

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The plenary will highlight key governance issues including: policy and strategic frameworks governing complex multisectoral recovery across the disaster and conflict spectrums, the role of NDMAs and reconstruction agencies in recovery from complex crises including public health emergencies; assessing, planning and managing recovery from complex crisis, jurisdictional challenges in recovering from a national-level emergency and localized disasters, especially in a conflict setting; implementation challenges and capacity constraints (human, financial, institutional, supply chain) in undertaking disaster recovery in conflict settings; reaching vulnerable populations and economic sectors, and addressing the structural drivers of disasters and conflict; building conflict sensitivity in disaster recovery programs; the ability to obtain, understand and communicate information; and building resilience to future shocks in a way that helps to resolve conflict. The session will also identify innovations and good practices that address these issues and light the way forward for improved governance models.

Session objectives

• Assess how well existing governance models for disaster recovery have performed in disaster-conflict situations during COVID-19;
• Identify and explore the unique governance challenges for recovery that have emerged during the pandemic;
• Highlight key governance issues for complex recovery that have not been adequately handled by existing institutions and management approaches;
• Share innovations and good practices that address these issues; and
• Make recommendations for adapting and improving governance models.

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Recovery from situations where disasters (including COVID-19) occur in a conflict situation is particularly challenging. The first step in preparing a recovery framework for these complex crises is to assess the impact of the interconnected events and the needs for recovery. This requires attention not only to socio-economic reconstruction but also to peacebuilding.

A hybrid approach is warranted for several reasons. There is guidance on how PDNAs can be more conflict-sensitive. However, PDNAs do not assess the nature of conflict and opportunities for peacebuilding. RPBAs are designed to focus on recovery for peacebuilding but do not incorporate resilience to and recovery from disaster risks as part of their framework. Thus, neither approach is adequate for the task of assessing recovery from these complex, interconnected events.

Session objectives

• Understand the current assessment approaches (conflict-sensitive PDNAs and RPBAs);
• Clarify the roles that disaster-conflict recovery assessment should play, including towards the development of integrated recovery frameworks for disaster and conflict recovery and peacebuilding;
• Review recent experience with hybrid approaches that have been used for recovery assessment in complex settings;
• Develop recommendations for improving recovery assessment in complex and interconnected disaster-conflict events.

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How institutions are set up to respond, recover and rebuild from complex crises plays a critical role in recovery and reconstruction. Institutions with recovery responsibilities must be identified or established for streamlining or fast-tracking recovery processes. They must be properly resourced to manage and implement what can be long and difficult recovery efforts. This involves clarifying roles and responsibilities across agencies and government partners. Clarity about each institution’s responsibilities is needed to reduce duplication and associated costs, and integrate activities across recovery. Confirming institutional arrangements and clarifying roles/responsibilities is critical at the national, local and community levels. Program implementation requires clear mechanisms to coordinate across private and public sectors, communities, and markets.

The session will share experiences in managing recovery from complex crises. It will focus on successful institutional arrangements, management practices and other innovative solutions to identify elements that can be replicated or adapted to a range of contexts.

Session objectives

• Understand how institutional arrangements can be critical to whether post-crisis recovery succeeds or flounders;
• Highlight the special institutional and managerial challenges that are posed by complex crises, especially those cascading and concurrent events that have coincided with the pandemic;
• Share good practices for institutional arrangements and recovery management at the national, local and community levels that are effective, inclusive and sustainable;
• Identify characteristics of institutional and managerial approaches that can be replicated or adapted to complex crises and a range of country contexts; and
• Elaborate next steps for enhancing resilient recovery through better institutional preparedness.

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The session will address how the environment can be brought back into the recovery agenda. The world has gone through an unprecedented pandemic which affected not only every country but also every domain of human activity. With economic activities curtailed due to health-related restrictions, environmental issues took a backseat across the world. For example, the use of single use plastic exploded around the world, while many governments which were committed to take strong action on single use plastic had to either stop enforcing legislation or delay their introductions.

Countries have planned and are implementing post COVID recovery and stimulus packages around the world. However, the focus remains on livelihoods and employment creation, and environment is once again not a priority. For example, green recovery measures are still a small component of total COVID-19 spending (only 21% of recovery spending, or around 4% of rescue and recovery spending combined). Significant funds are still allocated to measures with likely environmentally negative and mixed impacts.

Session objectives

• To discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by disasters and the post-COVID pandemic recovery for mainstreaming environmental considerations
• To present country examples of environmental challenges as well as opportunities and best practices for mainstreaming environmental considerations in recovery programmes

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The session will highlight the current state-trend toward the exclusion of women as key actors in critical decisions regarding economic recovery in post-conflict, disaster prone settings, especially as it pertains to the COVID-19 pandemic. While women, including young women, are increasingly participating in peace and security processes, this largely precludes participation in disaster risk reduction, recovery and governance efforts, which are important to improving women’s livelihoods and empowerment, but also to preventing future disasters and conflict. To effectively implement post-conflict recovery measures in high climate and disaster risk areas, it is imperative to create, maintain and sustain gender-responsive and inclusive policy, programming and financing efforts, with an effort to scale up the outreach to various excluded groups at large, such as persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, indigenous persons, and LGBTQI+ communities.

The session will focus on the experiences of young women peacebuilders, the LBTQI+ community, local women leaders in disaster resilience, and leaders from persons with disabilities organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to share their asks and lessons for a risk—informed, sustainable and equitable recovery for all.  

Session objectives

The objective of the session is to discuss and advocate for the greater inclusion of women of all ages and backgrounds in meaningful socioeconomic recovery efforts in high disaster and climate risk areas, especially as they pertain to the COVID-19 pandemic and post-conflict settings. As such, the session will distinctly situate women of all backgrounds as key actors in these processes, rather than a group of persons simply acting as beneficiaries in these efforts.

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It is vital that countries strategize their recovery actions based on learning from COVID-19, adopting innovations and building on thorough assessments. This will ensure that health systems are consistently building back better towards a sustainable recovery by integrating risk management measures to protect communities from impacts of health emergencies, including future epidemics and pandemics and climate related extreme weather events.

Increasing investment in health systems and all-hazards emergency risk management, e.g. building strong risk informed primary health care, investing in essential public health functions, and institutionalizing mechanisms for whole-of society engagement are necessary for building more resilient and sustainable communities.

In this session, policy options for recovery, pandemic lessons learned, and strategies for strengthening health systems resilience will be discussed. A focus will be put on how research and innovation and capacities built during the pandemic response phase can be systematically leveraged to guide management of health risks in recovery.

Session objectives

• Highlight the impacts of the pandemic on the health sector, including how it affected vulnerable groups, including women and girls disproportionately.
• Share lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss how well informed strategies can be applied to build more resilient health systems that protect communities from crisis.
• Advocate WHO’s policy approaches for health system recovery, that bring together and integrate PHC based health systems for UHC with health security and essential public health functions.
• Promote core concepts that apply to operationalizing risk informed Building Back Better, using whole of society and whole of government principles and partnerships from global to national levels focusing on ‘health’ as central to socio-economic recovery and development for a gender sensitive and inclusive post COVID-19 recovery