Risk-informed decision-making for sustainable development

Event Summary

Organization: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Speakers

• Mr. Jo Scheuer, Director, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction, BPPS, UNDP
• Prof. Yuichi Ono, Professor, Tohoku University and Director, Global Center for Disaster Statistics
• Dr. Stuart Fraser, Senior DRM Specialist, Innovation Lab Team, GFDRR
• Mr. Martin Owor, Commissioner, Department of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Management, Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Uganda
• Dr. John Schneider, Secretary-General, Global Earthquake Model (GEM)

Description

Date: Monday, May 14, 2:00pm – 3:30pm

Room: Salon de Maestros

The need to hardwire disaster risks and climate impacts into development processes at all levels is affirmed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The development processes at national, sub-national, sectoral and community levels needs to be risk-informed in order to achieve the objectives of development sustainability, resilience building, poverty eradication and leaving no one behind.

Risk is not exogenous to development; rather development itself is a key driver of risk (viz. urbanization, settlements in hazardous areas, infrastructure development like roads, bridges, dams, embankments, buildings etc.). The close interface between development and risks makes it imperative to ensure that risk information and risk assessment is conducted thoroughly. The systematic assessment of risks (hazards, exposure, vulnerabilities and capacities) provides the evidence-base for risk-informing the development processes. Making risk information accessible in an easy-to-understand format to decision and policy makers is essential for infusing development policies and plans with a requisite risk dimension, and for facilitating the application of risk information by public and private sector stakeholders.

This makes the need for risk information generation, dissemination, communication and application in key socio-economic development sectors imperative. It entails providing an empirical basis for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation interventions, strengthen national capacities, facilitate communication and application of risk information and support risk-informed development decision-making. Investment in risk information and its dissemination accompanied by the design of appropriate accountability mechanisms as part of strengthened disaster/climate risk governance help advance the objectives of sustainable development and resilience building at all levels and across all socio-economic development sectors.

In order to advance governance of risk in an effective manner and to augment the development decision-making, UNDP’s disaster and climate risk governance practice aims to strengthen the institutional, legislative, policy and regulatory frameworks and to foster mainstreaming of disaster and climate risks into development plans and programs at all administrative levels and sectors.

The Side Event aims to unpack the risk-informed decision-making process by sharing experiences and lessons from a range of practitioners and countries. The Event will emphasize the need to conduct risk assessments in a way to promote greater local ownership of the risk and the incentive to manage it. This will be complemented by focusing on the need for risk assessments to move beyond the description of the problem (risk identification). It will seek to advance an risk-informed development approach by providing easy-to-understand and application risk management solutions for development decision-making and resilience building. It will emphasize the centrality of risk information cycle comprising four stages viz. (i) generation of risk information through evidence-based risk assessments and modeling; (ii) risk management by providing dynamic risk profiling; (iii) risk communication and dissemination in a user-friendly format and visualization; and (iv) use/application of risk information through effective risk governance institutions and systems at national and sectoral levels.

The Event will bring together the representatives from national Governments and their key development sectoral agencies, development planners and administrative decision-makers, practitioners from the field of disaster risk reduction and climate change, development practitioners, research and technical organizations, international organizations and experts from disaster risk assessment and climate risk information area.

Agenda: