Event Summary
Organization: World Bank
Session Lead
- Haris Sanahuja, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank
Description
Date: Tuesday, May 15, 2:00pm – 5:30pm
Room: C3
In October 1998 Hurricane Mitch dropped historic amounts of rainfall in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala causing catastrophic flooding and landslides. Mitch became the deadliest and most costly disaster caused by a natural hazard in Central America, with nearly 22, 000 people killed and missing, 2.7 million left homeless and over $6 billion in economic losses. The colossal impact of Mitch triggered a reconstruction process under the moto of “reconstruction and transformation of Central America” with a strong focus on reducing the vulnerability revealed by Mitch. Since then, regional and national DRM policies have been introduced, and new conceptual frameworks and instruments have been promoted to foster disaster risk reduction at regional, national and local levels. In this context, the 20-year anniversary of Mitch provides a unique opportunity for a “hard talk” and critical analysis of the state of disaster risk management in the region, lessons learned and emerging challenges. This session aims at providing a platform to introduce and discuss the issues that could frame discussions in a Regional Forum “Mitch+20” to be held in late October.
1- Introduction– Forensic study “Mitch +20” (focused on two case studies in Central America).
2- Presentation of potential key issues to frame discussions in a Regional Forum “Mitch+20”
3- “Hard talk” (panel discussion): 3-4 Panelists (CEPREDENAC; COSEFIN; Banco Mundial, tbc).
4- Open debate (facilitated)
