Event Summary
Description
On Friday, November 20, Addis Ababa University hosted a “Focus Day”, with trainings and workshops attended by over 200 people. Below are the workshops, listed in chronological order.
FUNDAMENTALS OF RISK ASSESSMENT IN DATA POOR ENVIRONMENTS, AMBIENTAL
This training covered the fundamentals of disaster risk assessments (DRAs) for a range of natural hazards, with a specific focus on the African context. The training aimed to enable the participants to enhance their understanding of the methodologies behind DRA and the potential of such assessments for supporting policies on a national or sub-national level.
FORECAST-BASED FINANCE: A NEW APPROACH TO RISK FINANCING, RED CROSS/RED CRESCENT CLIMATE CENTER
“Forecast-based Financing” focuses on using weather predictions to automatically trigger early action, long before a disaster manifests. In this session, participants discussed practical experience of applying these concepts in Asia, Latin America and Africa, challenging assumptions around disasters and disaster risk management. Disaster managers and scientists from Uganda, Togo, Mozambique, and Ethiopia, among others, offered reflections and examples from their pilots.
USING AFRICA RISK VIEW TO LINK EARLY WARNING TO EARLY ACTION, AFRICAN RISK CAPACITY (ARC)
In this session participants learned about African Risk Capacity (ARC) and its technical engine Africa RiskView. Participants were introduced to how the model works and how it is used by cities to link early warning to early action through insurance and contingency planning.
MAPPING CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY HOTSPOTS, REGIONAL CENTER FOR MAPPING OF RESOURCES FOR DEVELOPMENT (RCMRD)
So-called “hotspots” maps are often used to direct attention to areas where impacts are expected to be greatest and potentially require adaptation interventions. Mapping is useful because climate variability and extremes, the sensitivity of populations and systems, and adaptive/coping capacities are all spatially differentiated. This training session will demonstrate approaches to combine geo-referenced socio-economic, biophysical and climate data to understand patterns of hazards and vulnerability and inform climate adaptation.
OPEN DATA FOR RESILIENCE INITIATIVE: TOOLS AND TRAINING, WORLD BANK/GFDRR
Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) applies the concepts of the global open data movement to the challenges of reducing vulnerability to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change. The session will be a hands-on training where participants will be able to install and use three of the tools frequently used as part of Open DRI projects: InaSAFE (inasfe.org, an open source tool that provides realistic disaster scenarios and their potential impacts; GeoNode (geonode.org), an open source platform that facilitates the creation, sharing and collaborative use of geospatial data; and OpenStreetMap (openstreetmap.org), a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world.
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISASTER RISK FINANCE, WORLD BANK/GFDRR
Why should a Ministry of Finance be concerned with the impact from disasters? What can a county do to protect its fiscal balance? And what are the next steps towards putting in place sustainable and cost effective mechanisms to finance disaster response? Come join us for an interactive session to learn how to start thinking about increasing financial resilience at a national level.
DISASTER LOSS DATABASES: FROM SENDAI FRAMEWORK TARGETS TO DESIGNING RISK FINANCING STATEGIES, UNISDR
Building disaster loss databases (DLDB’s) enables countries to report on the targets of the Sendai Framework. UNISDR has been proposing (under discussion at the Open Ended Intergovernmental Working Group OEIWG) a set of recommendations on how countries should gather and record this data, which entails collecting information disaggregated by several criteria, including by hazard, geography, and event. This session will address these topics and conduct hands-on work using examples from African countries.
BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY: STRENGTHENING RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE-INDICED AND NATURAL HAZARDS, UNOPS
Since the adoption of the SFDRR in March 2015, there have been a number of initiatives aimed at understanding and interpreting what the document means in terms of its development context. The formulation of the SDGs and climate change frameworks, in relation to the SFDRR, is adding another layer of complexity that countries will have to overcome if they are to achieve cohesion within and across the global frameworks. UNOPS has developed a clear and consistent model that brings together the concepts of sustainability, climate change, and resilience to assist our partners translate these frameworks into action.
INTRODUCTION TO REMOTE SENSING FOR FINANCIAL PROTECTINO OF AFRICAN FARMERS, WORLD BANK/GFDRR
As the coverage and availability of satellite observation data continuously increases, this data is being applied in new and innovative ways for the financial protection of farmers. In this training session, the panelists will discuss ongoing initiatives in this space, including: the use of satellite weather data for index insurance for smallholder farmers in Mali; how satellites measure the availability of pasture to protect pastoralists in Northern Kenya; how different satellite data can be used and combined to improve crop yield estimates; and how it can be used to scale up social safety nets to protect vulnerable agricultural producers.
UNVEILING EARTHQUAKE RISK IN AFRICA: FROM RUPTURE TO RECOVERY, GLOBAL EARTHQUAKE MODEL (GEM)
The Global Earthquake Model (GEM), in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is developing tools, models and datasets to enable a holistic assessment of earthquake risk in Africa that goes beyond the estimation of direct hazard impacts, by integrating estimates of physical risk with quantified metrics of socio-economic vulnerability and resilience of populations. This workshop will demonstrate several products for risk assessment as input for risk management and reduction strategies. It will further promote discussions between technical experts and decision-makers, in addition to fostering understanding of key gaps in earthquake risk and resilience at the urban level.
INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO RESILIENCE BUILDING, EU/WFP
This session will introduce innovative approaches to resilience building activities. The EU will present the Resilience Building in Ethiopia (RESET) program and its role in strengthening the resilience of communities facing recurrent disasters. WFP will present the Food Security Climate Resilience Facility (FoodSECuRE), which uses climate forecasts to trigger anticipatory action at community level before climate shocks occur.
MAKING HARD DECISIONS ABOUT FINANCING AND RISK MANAGEMENT: AN INTERACTIVE TRAINING, WORLD BANK
This session will be an interactive decision-making game where participants experience firsthand the costs and benefits of financial protection against disasters. Aimed at financial decision makers, the session will highlight how financial preparedness can help governments respond and recover from a large shock threatening national budgets. It will focus on the key factors and trade-offs that governments should consider when deciding whether to purchase a sovereign insurance policy.
COMMUNITY BASED RESILIENCE ANALYSIS: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH FOR LOCAL VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE, AFRICAN CENTER FOR DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT (ACDRM)
The process of resilience assessment goes through identifying the priority characteristics of resilience in the target community, assessing communities’ attainment of resilience in the current conditions and in the previous crisis/disaster, identifying characteristics and strategies of resilient households and identifying the most highly rated interventions or services in building local resilience. This training will explore these topics in the context of a study conducted in pastoralist communities of Ethiopia.
USING THE INFORM RISK INDEX: SHARED RISK ANALYSIS AT THE BASIS OF CRISIS PREVENTION, PREPAREDNESS, AND RESPONSE AT GLOBAL AND LOCAL LEVEL, UN-OCHA
Humanitarian and development actors and national governments increasingly recognize the need to transition from a reactive humanitarian crisis response model to a proactive crisis and disaster management framework. Such a framework must be built on a sound understanding of the drivers of humanitarian risk so that actors can work from a common understanding of priorities in order to target their resources in a coordinated and effective manner. INFORM is a global, open-source risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters that provides such a framework that encompasses the exposure to hazards, the vulnerability and the capacity to cope. It can be tailored to assess risk at subnational scale across regions or countries.
INTRODUCTION TO POST DISASTER NEEDS ASSESSMENT (PDNA) METHODOLOGY AND THE RECOVERY FRAMEWORK APPROACH, UNDP & GFDRR
The World Bank, the United Nations Development Group (UNDG), under the coordination of UNDP and the European Union signed a tripartite agreement in 2008 committing themselves to develop and use common assessment and recovery planning approaches in post-crisis settings. This collaboration has since resulted in the development of a common methodology and related guides for Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and the Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF). This session will introduce the latest concepts, processes and experience with PDNAs and DRFs.