Catalyzing Inclusive Risk Finance in LAC: Opportunities for Innovation in Guatemala and the Caribbean

February 12, 2021 3:03 pm Published by Leave a comment

  

Catalyzing Inclusive Risk Finance in LAC: Opportunities for Innovation in Guatemala and the Caribbean

Organizer: World Food Programme (WFP)

In the session, Kathryn Milliken and Andrea Camargo from the World Food Programme (WFP) will present the Risk Finance Strategy for LAC and the risk layered approach adopted by WFP Guatemala. Edgar Uribe (Swiss Re) and Iker Llabres (MiCRO) are going to present the work behind the design of the weather index microinsurance product that will be piloted in Guatemala from April 2021 with Aseguradora Rural.

Background: The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region is exposed to a diversity of shocks threatening communities’ livelihoods and food security. Building resilience of the most vulnerable and food insecure is a priority for WFP, with risk financing playing an important role.

The Regional Office of WFP in Latin America and the Caribbean adopted in 2020 a Risk Financing Strategy to encourage the adoption of innovative, responsible, sustainable and scalable risk financing tools to build resilience of the most vulnerable and food insecure. Inspired by this regional strategy, Guatemala is adopting a layered approach where the complementarity between microinsurance, forecast-based financing (FbF), and macro and meso risk financing tools is at the core. Other countries such as Dominica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti and El Salvador are currently exploring the pathways to integrate risk financing tools within their programmes.

WFP Guatemala, in collaboration with Swiss Re (reinsurance coverage), Aseguradora Rural (local reinsurer) and the Microinsurance Catastrophe Risk Organisation (MiCRO) (technical design of the product), has worked on the integration of a weather index microinsurance product covering drought and excess rain into their programmes to boost resilience and productivity of smallholder farmers and microentrepreneurs. In order to ensure sustainability, WFP Guatemala designed a scalable and sustainable strategy that requires linking the microinsurance product with supply value chains. The product is awaiting the approval of the Guatemalan supervisory authority, Superintendencia de Bancos (SIB).

Speakers:
Kathryn Milliken, Climate Change Adviser (World Food Programme)
Andrea Camargo, Risk Finance Consultant (World Food Programme)
Iker Llabres, Actuarial Officer and Business Manager for El Salvador (MiCRO)
Edgar Uribe, Underwriter and Senior Product Manager (Swiss Re)

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European Commission MISSION on Adaptation to Climate Change with Societal Transformation

February 12, 2021 2:58 pm Published by Leave a comment

  

European Commission MISSION on Adaptation to Climate Change with Societal Transformation

Organizer: Public Health England

Partly inspired by the Apollo 11 mission to put a man on the moon, the European research and innovation missions aim to deliver solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing our world. They are an integral part of the Horizon Europe framework programme beginning in 2021. Climate adaptation is the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. The mission area will support this process by connecting citizens with science and public policy and this is an important part of understanding risk A mission in this area will help maximise the impact of the EU’s support to research and innovation and demonstrate its relevance for society and citizens. Its focus will be on solutions and preparedness for the impact of climate change to protect lives and assets. It will include behavioural changes and social aspects by addressing new communities beyond usual stakeholders, which help lead to a societal transformation. This mission area has a mission board tasked with identifying one or more specific missions for implementation under Horizon Europe. The mission board consists of 15 experts, including the chair, and is supported by a mission secretariat and an assembly. Our time line is September 2019 Mission board meets for the first time End 2019-Early 2020 Target for mission boards to identify the first of one or more possible missions in the area The mission board has developed, together with stakeholders and citizens, the research and innovation activities that will contribute to the mission. These will be funded via the Horizon Europe work programme for 2021-2022.On 1 January 2021 the mission will come into effect with the launch of Horizon Europe The aim of the workshop is to consult with colleagues on how best to inform the Mission on climate adaptation as the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects by connecting citizens with science and public policy.

Speakers:
Connie Hedegaard, Chair of the European Commission MISSION on Adaptation to Climate Change with Societal Transformation Session
Philippe Tulkens , Acting Head of Unit “Climate and Planetary Boundaries” Healthy Planet Directorate. Directorate General for Research and Innovation European Commission
Jaroslav Mysiak, Member of the European Commission MISSION BOARD on Adaptation to Climate Change with Societal Transformation. Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change and Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy.
Virginia Murray , Already a speaker

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Future/ Risk/ Tick √: Future Climate Projections Show us a Possible Future

February 12, 2021 2:52 pm Published by Leave a comment

  

Future/ Risk/ Tick √: Future Climate Projections Show us a Possible Future

Organizer: Lloyd’s Register Foundation, National University of Singapore

An interactive active session, starting with a weather bulletin for the 2050s, and seeking advice from experts and the audience on risk resilient practices using future climate projections. Panelists include Met Office Climate Science, Red Cross Climate Centre, World Bank and World Food Programme experts. The Host of the session will provide further context on an Imaginary Country. The challenges the people of this nation face NOW are more frequent and intense Tropical Cyclones, which lead to flooding. Seasonal forecasts indicate the possibility of more frequent droughts. And climate projections to the 2050s/2080s indicate this country is likely to experience a potential desertification in a specific region. The information on the Imaginary Country will set the scene for an interactive discussion with expert panellists and will seek input from audiences on how we can incorporate future climate projections and potential risks into our early warnings and actions today.

Speakers:
Nyree Pinder, Global Partnerships Manager – Met Office
Joseph Daron, Climate Scientist, Met Office
Irene Amuron, Forecast Based Financing Technical Advisor – Red Cross Climate Centre
Cathy Ansell, Financial Sector Specialist in Crisis and Disaster Risk – World Ba nk
Katiuscia Fara, Senior Climate Services and DRR Advisor

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Global Risk Narratives and Communications: Strategy, Tools, and Cultural Considerations

February 12, 2021 2:47 pm Published by Leave a comment

  

Global Risk Narratives and Communications: Strategy, Tools, and Cultural Considerations

Organizer: Lloyd’s Register Foundation, National University of Singapore

This session launches two white papers from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk: (1) Global Risk Perception Gap: Comparing Societal Narratives and Individual Perceptions of Risk; and (2) Culture and Risk: Influence of Culture on Risk Experience and Perceptions. Thereafter, a diverse panel of thought leaders and practitioners from three continents will share the challenges of communicating risk across the lifespan, and stories of creative experiments.

Speakers:
Reuben Ng, Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore / Lead Scientist, Data & Technology, Lloyd’s Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk
Yichen Zhu, Project Manager, Data and Technology, Lloyd’s Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk
Temuulen Bayaraa, Project Manager, Data and Technology, Lloyd’s Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk
Jeannette Ickovics, Dean of Faculty, Yale-NUS College
Pablo Suarez, Associate Director for Research and Innovation, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre / Artist in Residence, Lloyd’s Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk
Carin Ism, Co-Founder, Future of Governance Agency

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Landslides: the Next Frontier of Hazard Early Warning

February 9, 2021 5:28 pm Published by Leave a comment

  

Landslides: the Next Frontier of Hazard Early Warning

Organizer: Met Office

Landslides are complex hazards that affect many areas of the world and cause significant loss of life and damage. Landslide early warning systems provide an opportunity to generate information in advance of such events, allowing for early actions that can reduce risks and impacts of these hazards. However, landslide early warning systems vary widely in approaches, scale, and many case studies are non-operational. There are also no existing holistic guidance resources for countries considering implementing landslide early warning systems. This session will provide an overview of landslide early warning systems from both a technical and operational/practical perspective, drawing on experiences and knowledge across the globe and case studies of Nepal and India from the Science for Humanitarian Emergencies and Resilience programme (SHEAR). Both slope and regional scale LEWS will be covered in a virtual marketplace format to encourage discussions and tailored sharing of knowledge aligned with participants’ interests and needs. The essential value of a combined approach across physical science, social science and practitioners will be emphasised in order to achieve an operational, sustainable system.

Speakers:
Emma Bee, Senior Geospatial Analyst
Mauro Rossi, Researcher
Claire Dashwood, Engineering Geohazard Geologist
Robert Neal, Research Scientists
Christian Arnhardt, Engineering Geologist
Alessandro Mondini, Researcher
Arnulf Schiller, Geophysicist
Anshu Ogra, Postdoctoral Research Associate
Jonathan Paul, Lecturer in Earth Science
Mirianna Budimir, Senior Disaster Risk Reduction Advisor
Saibal Ghosh, Director of Geology

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November 16, 2020 12:49 pm Published by Enter your password to view comments.

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Teaching to the nth degree: Effective risk communication in Rohingya camps In Bangladesh

September 29, 2020 9:11 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Teaching to the nth degree: Effective risk communication in Rohingya camps In Bangladesh

Over the last three years, close to a million Rohingya community members have left Myanmar and settled in the hills in the outskirts of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Among the many challenges facing the Rohingya settlers is the considerable risks from the torrential monsoons and massive tropical cyclones that beleaguer Bangladesh each year. In working with the Rohingya community, the team faced two significant challenges. First, how does one create a new disaster reduction programme and early warning system in a place where no institutions exist? The CPP and ARC will share their story of how this work entailed dealing with serious challenges around language and communication. Secondly, how does one encourage proactive risk-reducing action among a community that is in a foreign place and still reeling from the trauma of being forced to leave their homeland? BDPC and NYU will share their story of how the risk communication intervention evolved and, with an exercise involving participation of the audience, will illustrate how the risk communication workshops work. The design is called “Teaching to the nth” because participants train themselves to train others and, in so doing, allow knowledge to reach even the most secluded parts of the community. Lastly, the programme is placed within the larger context of the World Bank’s effort at cyclone preparedness in Bangladesh, which includes the building of thousands of multipurpose cyclone shelters all over the country. (See project website at https://environmental-communication.space).

Organizer: New York University; Bangladesh Cyclone Preparedness Programme; Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre; American Red Cross; World Bank

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Mapathons, machine-learning, models – oh my! A friendly debate about data sources and how to use them

September 29, 2020 8:52 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Mapathons, machine-learning, models – oh my! A friendly debate about data sources and how to use them>

The world of data sources that are useful for the assessment and communication of risk is expanding rapidly. New and emerging data sources, especially for geospatial data, present exciting opportunities to aid disaster prevention, preparation, response, and recovery. However there are important questions about when and how to use these data sources, especially for government actors. Join us for a friendly debate and discussion of the merits and limitations of various data sources, with a particular focus on geospatial data such as crowd-sourced maps and machine-generated data from satellite imagery. This conversation will contribute to a broader consensus around ways of bridging conventional protocols and novel techniques for data creation, processing, and use throughout the disaster timeline.

Organizer: Mapbox, MIT Urban Risk Lab

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Dynamic cities, dynamic risk – Representing urban change in disaster risk models

September 29, 2020 8:31 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Dynamic cities, dynamic risk – Representing urban change in disaster risk models

The world’s urban population continues to grow rapidly in many parts of the world, with urban areas expanding or densifying to accommodate this growth. As a result, new structures are built on previously undeveloped land, density of development is intensified and multiple infrastructure systems need to be expanded or improved to provide more capacity. These changes fundamentally change the exposure and vulnerability of people, their built environment and livelihoods, to disaster risk. They change the magnitude, the distribution and the concentration of disaster risk.
We generally estimate risk using a snapshot of the conditions at one time point – when it comes to exposure and vulnerability this represents the built environment and population at the present time, or at a moment in the recent past (e.g. at the most recent census). A greater number of risk assessments now apply future socio-economic scenarios to estimate future risk, but this has largely been based on simple trending of asset values and population numbers based on shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs).
With the growth in urban development modelling, and new tools emerging that link these changes to risk quantification, it is now possible to better represent the impact of planned changes in the urban environment on disaster risk projections. Can we use these developments as a springboard to better account for urban dynamics in risk models more widely, and ultimately enable risk understanding to be updated dynamically, to keep pace with the changing built environment and account for potential changes in the coming decades?
We bring together experts in risk modelling, planning decision-support systems, machine learning and infrastructure systems to discuss how we can best account for the uncertain future built environment, in risk information. The audience, with inputs from our panellists including short model demonstrations, will discuss: the shortcomings of current risk models in representing urban dynamics; the challenges of including urban dynamics in risk models; what future model capabilities should provide; and how to provide meaningful decision support for urban development in the design of less-exposed and more-resilient cities and regions.
This session is being held in conjunction with a hands-on side event where users can experiment with the decision-support system UNHARMED, among others.

Organizer: GFDRR, University of Adelaide

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