Call For Proposals

UR Caribbean is co-chaired by the World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean Disaster Risk Management team, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and the Government of Barbados. We invite interested persons, organizations and businesses to submit proposals for technical sessions or training workshops to further the above objectives of UR Caribbean. These proposals should focus on one or more of the core themes listed below: 

  • Risk Analytics and Communication: Improve how risk information is efficiently collected, analyzed, and made available for use in decision-making processes to increase climate and disaster resilience. 
  • Physical Resilience: Integrate risk information in development planning, land use management, and infrastructure investments to guide regional projects and programs within the planning and infrastructure sectors. 
  • Fiscal Resilience: Foster proactive management of the fiscal impacts of natural hazards by assessing potential losses and employing financial instruments to better manage fiscal risk and disaster-response mechanisms of governments, businesses and individuals. 
  • Urban Resilience: Enhance urban resilience through better spatial planning, maintenance of existing infrastructure and investment in new strategic infrastructure; enhancing solid waste management and sanitation provision; ensuring sustainable transport systems meet the demands of the urban context; and providing for adequate urban trunk infrastructure for improved resilience. 
  • Coastal Protection: Increase coastal resilience through physical, social and ecological interventions that protect coastal communities, economic and ecological resources from climatic and weather-related hazards. 
  • Hydrometeorological (Hydromet) and Early Warning Services: Strengthen user-focused hydromet service provision with a focus on impact-based forecasting to inform end-to-end, community-centered, multi-hazard early warning systems. 
  • Community Engagement and Emergency Preparedness: Improve communities’ understanding of and capacity to assess and reduce disaster risk; improve and promote use of risk information in preparedness activities, including plans to address needs of vulnerable populations, and increase capacity of emergency response agencies to respond to recurrent disasters through use of risk information.


Types of Sessions – Technical Sessions (1.5 hours) vs Trainings/Workshops (half-whole day)

Session leads may choose to engage with either (i) technical sessions of 90 minutes that will take place as part of the initial 3-day conference and/or (ii) half or full-day trainings or workshops that will follow from May 29 – May 30. 


Responsibilities of Session Leads 

As a Session lead, you will play a critical role in framing the discourse of UR Caribbean by: (i) identifying the topic of the session; (ii) inviting experts and practitioners as session panelists or providing an alternative, highly interactive session; (iii) presenting an overview (Ignite) presentation on the opening night; (iv) moderating the conference session; and (v) providing a summary of the best practices discussed in the session for the conference proceedings publication and other materials. 

  • Session leads will be required to submit the following: Session title and abstract 
  • List of session participants 
  • Relevant resources from the organizing team 
  • Full session presentations or ‘Ignite’ presentations 

Session leads are also responsible for the session content, travel and accommodation needs of session presenters, and any material or equipment outside of standard AV equipment provided by the venue. The conference venue will accommodate your preferred room set-up. 


Evaluation of Proposals 

Each submission will be evaluated based on: 

  1. Level of participant engagement and interaction: Sessions should be engaging and fun, with adequate time for audience participation and questions. Suggested formats include, but are not limited to: panels and talk-show style, round-tables, interactive trainings, simulated decision-making, workshops, etc. 
  2. Creativity and innovation: We encourage all applicants to think outside the box for new and exciting ways to present information. 
  3. Technical depth and relevance: The title, abstract and learning objectives of proposal submissions must align with one of the UR Caribbean core themes: 
  • Risk Analytics and Communication 
  • Fiscal Resilience 
  • Physical Resilience 
  • Urban Resilience 
  • Coastal Protection 
  • Hydrometeorological and Early Warning Services 
  • Community Engagement and Emergency Preparedness 

Conference Design 

The three-day main conference program will include parallel tracks focusing on policy and technical solutions, and will offer a blend of plenary and breakout sessions that showcase innovative approaches for risk communication and disaster risk management. The session design and content will be crowdsourced from countries, partners and the UR community to provide attendees a spectrum of engaging discussions, learning experiences, panels, round-table discussions, interactive trainings, simulated decision-making, workshops, etc. The final two days will be dedicated to interactive trainings or workshops on relevant topics. It will also provide space for multimedia exhibits and bilateral meetings throughout the week. 

Submit your session proposal by March 15, 2019. 

To submit your proposal, please use the online form here. 

For questions, please reach out to URCaribbean@UnderstandRisk.org. 

Contacts URCaribbean@UnderstandRisk.org.