What is Understanding Risk?  

The Understanding Risk (UR) community was born in 2010 out of the recognition that disaster risk assessment and identification were activities that cut across sectors and industries. What began with just five founding partners has grown into a community of over 13,000 experts and practitioners interested and active in the creation, communication, and use of disaster risk information. This network has inspired innovation by sharing and applying best practices, developing technological solutions, and enabling cross-sector partnerships. The Community comes from nearly 209 countries, with 48.5% coming from WB client countries. Over 4,600 organizations are part of the community, representing government agencies, multilateral organizations, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, academia, community-based organizations, and civil society.

This vibrant UR community meets every two years, bringing together a diverse group of people from the private, public, nonprofit, technology, research, academic, and financial sectors. Every iteration of the UR Forum has produced new ideas and partnerships that have improved risk assessments and the communication of risk information, helping to integrate them into policy and development planning. These multi-day events highlight best practices, facilitate nontraditional partnerships and showcase the latest innovations in disaster risk identification. The community also holds smaller spinoff events at the municipal, national and regional levels. By the end of 2020, the community has convened 19 spinoff events. To learn a little more about the UR Community, check out a keynote from the manager of the UR Community, Simone Balog-Way, who provided an overview at UR Boulder.

UR Forums:

For more information on the UR Forums see the following links:

Who are members of the UR Community?

UR community members consist of experts and practitioners in disaster risk identification ranging from representatives of government agencies, multilateral organizations, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, academia, community-based organizations, and civil society. It is an open community and anyone can join.

How do I become a member?

If you are passionate about risk identification, join us at the next biennial global UR Forum! We also are partners in smaller Understanding Risk events that happen throughout the year. Check out our events page to find out more.

Sign up for our newsletter, join our LinkedIn group and follow us on Twitter to find out about new happenings in the field.

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How do I include my initiative on the UR website?

If you have an initiative related to disaster risk identification that you think would be of interest to the UR Community, please apply by filling out this form and providing the requested information.

History of the UR Community:  

The UR Community was born out of a recognized need for the disaster risk assessment and identification field to cross sector and industry boundaries. Since the founding of UR in 2010, the field of disaster risk identification has grown with innovation in identifying, assessing and communicating disaster risk.

UR convenes its members every two years at UR Global Forums. Additionally, regions, countries and cities have hosted their own smaller UR events, and the USA to allow the host city, country or region to host on issues relevant to them.

The UR Community website was created prior to the first UR Forum in 2010 to enable conference participants to exchanges ideas on the various session topics leading up to, and following the conference.

Contact us: Simone Balog-Way, Disaster Risk Communication and Management Analyst, GFDRR Innovation Lab sbalogway [at] worldbank [dot] org

Understanding Risk is an initiative of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), part of the World Bank Group.