Changing the Paradigm: Resilient Recovery Frameworks Consultations

25 November 2014, UCL, London

Natural disasters have caused damages of nearly £3 trillion over the past 30 years and the frequency and intensity of these powerful storms, droughts and earthquakes continue to rise.

The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) in the World Bank, in partnership with University College London and Habitat for Humanity and in association with the UK Shelter Forum organised a public presentation and discussion on how vulnerable countries can better prepare before disaster strikes and better plan and execute post disaster recovery and reconstruction programmes to contribute to sustainable development and resilience.

The event was open to humanitarian and development stakeholders involved in disaster preparedness, risk reduction, emergency response, reconstruction and development, research or practice.

This event in London followed the second World Reconstruction Conference (WRC 2) held in the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC in September 2014 which featured the launch of joint EU-UN-World Bank GFDRR Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) Guide and Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) Guide, as well as ten country case studies.

The presentation and discussion included:

  • The World Bank’s ongoing efforts to build consensus and collective action on resilient recovery, to ensure efficient and effective post disaster reconstruction and to increase readiness including stronger government recovery systems.
  • The role of civil society working with communities in the implementation of humanitarian, reconstruction and development programmes.
  • The importance of research, knowledge and capacity development to support resilient recovery.

The session offered a unique opportunity for dialogue between policy makers and practitioners as part of a process of consultation towards greater collaboration and more effective action.

For further information on WRC 2 and the DRF Guide, see:

https://www.gfdrr.org/WRC2

http://reliefweb.int/report/world/guide-developing-disaster-recovery-frameworks-world-reconstruction-conference-version

About the World Bank GFDRR : Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery
The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) helps high risk, low income developing countries better understand and reduce their vulnerabilities to natural hazards, and adapt to climate change. Working with over 300 partners-mostly local government agencies, civil society and technical organizations- GFDRR provides grant financing, on the ground technical assistance to mainstream disaster mitigation policies into country level strategies and a range of training and knowledge sharing activities. GFDRR is managed by the World Bank and funded by 21 donor partners.

15th UK Shelter Forum

The 15th UK Shelter Forum was hosted by CARE and Arup on Monday 24th November 2014. You can download the agenda here and the briefing note for day 1 here. The briefing from day 2 will be posted shortly.

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Topics covered in this forum include

  • Updates from shelter actors around the world,
  • Philippines Haiyan response one year on,
  • South Asia Floods
  • Forgotten African crises
  • Accelerating housing recovery
  • Future research needs: ‘what don’t we know..’.
The Forum closed with the launch of the new book ‘Still Standing? Looking back at reconstruction and disaster risk reduction in housing’ from the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF), followed by drinks kindly provided by BSHF.

An additional session for presentations and discussion on the Syria and Gaza crises was organised on Tuesday the 25th.

14th UK Shelter Forum

The fourteenth UK Shelter Forum was hosted by by IOM and Save the Children in London on Thursday 13th March 2014.  You can download the agenda for the event here and a briefing note here.

UKSF14a

In the morning, there were updates from different initiatives and group works on humanitarian response to urban crisis. While three different discussions were held in the afternoon.  The UK Shelter Forum was preceded by a PechaKucha evening bringing together researchers and practitioners to discuss shelter, settlements and disasters.  Posters and presentations from this event are available here.

Updates
Humanitarian Response to Urban Crises
Measuring Impact
Lessons from the Philippines
     Panelists
  • Julien Muliez (Chair), Save the Children
  • Bill Flinn, CENDEP
  • Brett Moore, World Vision
  • Gabriel Fernandez del Pino , CARE
  • Mario Flores, Habitat for Humanity International
  • Sonia Molina, British Red Cross
15 years behind WASH? Unresolved issues in the shelter sector and the ‘deep craft’ nature of shelter and housing technology
Closing Remarks