Highlights and images for 17 May 2023

On Wednesday, governments and non-state actors convened in the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Hub, a day-long series of discussions on priority issues. Participants attended 12 events, many of which were standing-room only.

In the morning, participants considered risk-sensitive urban development, disaster risk data and analytics, human mobility, and gender-responsive DRR.

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Alessandro Attolico, Making Cities Resilient 2030 Global Partnership, stressed that 60 percent of the global population will live in cities by 2030. Niels Holm-Nielsen, Practice Manager, World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, discussed the importance of technical work and genuine, long-term stakeholder engagement, which is informing efforts to tackle flooding in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In an event on gender responsive DRR, many speakers emphasized support for a Gender Action Plan (GAP) to be included in the draft political declaration of the Midterm Review. “Women are the true face of resilience” said Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director, UN Women, urging greater inclusion of women in DRR planning and decision-making. Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), noted support to include a GAP in this meeting's political declaration.

In the afternoon, participants considered the role of children in action for resilience, the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Accelerated Modalities of Action (Samoa Pathway), infrastructure and engineering for DRR, intersectionality, synergies between climate action and DRR, risk-proofing sustainable development, private investment for resilience, and the role of non-state actors.

On synergies between climate action and disaster risk planning, several speakers highlighted links to the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake and under the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage. Elizabeth Riley, Executive Director, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), explained that extreme climate change phenomena are “not in our playbook,” while Mariya Ahmed Didi, Minister of Defense, Maldives, highlighted efforts to build resilience in small islands, including investing in shoreline protection, local management plans, traditional knowledge, data, and new technologies.

In a session on private investment, many panelists observed the significant and growing investor appetite for green bonds, decarbonization, and portfolios that include resilience. Panelists discussed gaps in supply, the need for standards and guidance, and the importance of robust data and forecasting tools. Providing an example, Matina Papathanasiou, Founding Partner, QIC Global Infrastructure, said it was more cost effective to build a sea wall above current regulatory minimums than to rebuild an entire airport runway vulnerable to storm surge.