The workshop reiterated the importance of countries collecting and using disaster risk information to inform strategy development.  Participants heard that most of the risk information currently available to countries is informed by past disasters whereas the disasters of the future could be of a different nature and intensity due to climate change.  Throughout the region, an investment in disaster loss databases and capacity-strengthening is required to meet the data requirements of the future. 

The workshop provided an opportunity for governments including Indonesia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, and Pakistan to share innovative DRR financing solutions. For example, through a $200 million loan from the Asian Development Bank and grants from Switzerland and Australia, Pakistan established its National Disaster Risk Management Fund to support projects that enhance disaster resilience. The Fund will finance up to 70 percent of the costs of eligible projects and will start dispersing resources in January 2019. In Bangladesh, the government has pursued a coherent approach that funds both DRR and climate change. Disaster risk management activities are part of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategic Action Plan, and the annual budget provides for dedicated funds from for the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund.

“We are trying to promote mechanisms for disaster risk transfer, insurance, risk-sharing, and retention ... in order to reduce the financial impact of disasters on governments and societies, in urban and rural areas,” said Md. Shahriar Kader Siddiky, Joint Secretary at the Bangladesh Ministry of Finance.

A recommendation many echoed is the need to sensitize decision makers, especially donors and development actors, to the value of investing in disaster risk reduction. Several participants emphasized that opportunities for integrating DRR into sectoral strategies should also be actively pursued, while noting that coordination across sectors remains an institutional challenge.  

A recurrent theme at the workshop was the need to ensure that national and local strategies are designed to guarantee no-one is left behind in disasters. The achievement of Target E across the region is an opportunity to promote pro-poor, gender-responsive strategies that seek to reduce the impact of disasters on the most vulnerable and marginalised. There was also a wide consensus that for resilience to prevail in the Asia Pacific region, the development and implementation of national and local DRR strategies must be fully aligned with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Goals.

This workshop was made possible thanks to generous support from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

Date:

18 Dec 2018

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Asia and Pacific (UNISDR AP)

Themes:

Community-based DRR, Advocacy & Media, Risk Identification & Assessment, Disaster Risk Management

Regions:

Asia