Online Workshop on Risk-informed Governance, Climate Action and Finance Mechanisms for Local Resilience

Organizers

• UNDRR Global Education and Training Institute (GETI)
• United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), through the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG) and its project office - United Nations Project Office on Governance (UNPOG)
• United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) CIFAL Jeju/Jeju International Training Center (JITC) 
• Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030)

Event Description

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development places great importance on disaster risk reduction (DRR) as a cross-cutting element in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda proposes concrete commitments to reduce risk, vulnerability, build capacity and promote resilience to disasters. Reducing disaster risk and building resilience are interrelated thrusts of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. The Sendai Framework calls on governments to move towards risk-informed governance arrangements that include broader hazard and risk scope and incorporate the concept of systemic risk. Priority 2 of the Sendai Framework expressly calls for strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its report of August 2021 issued a code red for humanity. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that the window of opportunity to prevent the worst climate impacts is rapidly closing as no region is immune to the impending disaster. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause immense suffering, it is also undermining governments’ ability to respond to climate change, disaster risk and resilience. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of strategic planning and foresight, an organized, systematic way of looking beyond the expected to engage with uncertainty 

and complexity. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought renewed attention to the importance of strengthening multi-hazard DRR and risk governance to build a safer and more resilient world. 

Climate change is a defining challenge of the 21st century, and it is both compounding existing threats to sustainable development as well as creating new obstacles. Climate change is undermining or, in some cases, reversing the effectiveness and sustainability of development interventions. Heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, tropical cyclones, sea-level rise and ocean warming, and acidification are all phenomena that can undermine countries’ ability to achieve the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Effectively integrating Climate Action and DRR into National/Sustainable Development Plans requires enabling policies, guidelines, legal frameworks, capacities and investments at the national and sub-national levels.

According to the Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2022, the Asia-Pacific region needs to accelerate its progress on all 17 SDGs. As per the current path, progress towards the SDGs in the Asia-Pacific region has slowed as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change have exacerbated development challenges. The region is not on track to achieve any of the 17 SDGs. In this regard, building resilience and adapting to climate change, and adequately integrating innovative financing mechanisms and strategies for the SDGs implementation is particualrly crucial, especially for local authorities in Asia and the Pacific region.

This training will first take stock of mechanisms to enhance the scale of disaster risk reduction finance by the public and private sectors along with approaches to disaster risk reduction finance. The training will then provide concepts, tools and approaches for implementing the 2030 Agenda and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 at the local level, as well as the introduction of the Toolkit on Risk-informed Governance and Innovative Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience, which is part of UN DESA’s Curriculum on Governance for SDGs, and provide specific guidance on leveraging data and digital government for disaster risk reduction and resilience. The training will also be an opportunity to learn about the global initiative on Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) launched in 2020 to ensure cities become inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by 2030, contributing directly to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11) and other global frameworks including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement and the New Urban Agenda. 
 

Course Objective

The capacity building training workshop, while promoting risk-informed governance, will:

1. Support the localization and implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030;
2. Introduce the Toolkit on Risk-Informed Governance and Innovative Technology for DRR and Resilience and specifically provide guidance on leveraging data and digital government for DRR and resilience; 
3. Improve understanding of the 11 principles of governance for the SDGs for building local resilience; 
4. Examine the innovative finance mechanisms to implement the SDGs 
5. Explore the diagnosis tool for assessing resilience progress and preparing an evidence-based risk reduction and resilience planning
6. Get familiar with Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) and additional resources to enhance local resilience
    

Expected Outcomes

By the end of the training workshop, participants would have:

1. Understood the global framework for disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and innovative finance mechanism in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals;
2. Increased their understanding and strengthened their capacities on Governance Innovation and Leveraging Risk-informed Governance for DRR and Resilience; 
3. Improved their understanding of the 11 principles of governance for the SDGs for building local resilience; 
4. Experience in using the Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities to assess their city resilience progress for the development of an evidence- and needs-based action plan.
5. Enhanced their understanding on MCR2030, resilience roadmap, and how to join this global initiative and access useful tools and resources to enhance local resilience.

Structure and Methodology

The training will be comprised of lectures and thematic presentations by experts, case study presentations, interactive Q&A discussion, and self-assessment exercises. Session-based group work will enable participants to transform in-depth learning into practice and familiarize with coordinated action for decision making. The workshop is composed of four Sessions and the thematic focus of each session will include:

Session 1: Innovative Finance Mechanisms for Local Resilience to Disasters

Making communities resilient to disasters, particularly climate-related ones, is more critical than ever. 
Climate change combined with global population growth, urban sprawl, ecological disruption caused 
by mankind is creating the unprecedented level of climate risks. Climate-related disasters have increased in terms of frequency and severity, which gives rise to the surge in economic and human losses especially for low-income and small island countries. As one of the pathways to assisting these countries cope with disasters, there is an increasing consensus that the least-developed countries need to find out innovative ways to finance disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and building back better. Over the past two decades, governments and the development and international community have introduced important tools, approaches, and programs in disaster risk finance to build resilience both before and after disasters strike. Considering the urgency and the extent of the challenges developing countries face, demand for scaling up disaster risk finance is quite critical and intense. 

The session will explore approaches and types of disaster risk reduction finance along with the business case for advancing the finance mechanism. The session will also examine some key questions that can provide insight on the disaster risk pools and the larger context of disaster risk finance: to what extent are countries utilizing different disaster risk finance instruments to cope with the varying layers of risk, and to what extent are financial tools such as national disaster funds, credit lines, and insurance products supporting the efforts to protect vulnerable people, particularly in countries vulnerable to climate risks where resources are not sufficient. 

Session 2: Risk-informed Governance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience 

Risk-informed governance, digital government and innovative frontier technologies presents rapidly evolving prospects for building resilience across developed and developing countries. Digital technologies and effective public governance have the potential for strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability. Governments are increasingly leveraging frontier technologies to ensure resilience and reduce disaster and climate risks. Digital government tools and particularly open data and big data analytics, can enable governments to effectively anticipate, prepare, and respond to risks and disasters. Innovative technologies have become more significant in building resilient societies especially for those countries in special situation to help build back-better in times of disasters. This session will focus on providing the fundamental knowledge on disaster risk reduction and its linkage with sustainable development. The session will highlight and share insights on the significant role of risk-informed governance and innovative technology for DRR and resilience. The session will also delve into leveraging digital government solutions for DRR and building resilience using the training toolkit on Risk-informed Governance and Innovative Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience, which is part of UN DESA’s Curriculum on Governance for SDGs. 

Session 3: Promoting Climate Action for Achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 

Urban risk is continually increasing. It has been estimated that more than 50 per cent of the world's population is living in urban areas. Urbanization is taking place at an unprecedented rate. In the next 20 years, the world’s population is predicted to increase by an additional two billion. By 2030 more than 60% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities, with record concentrations in large urban conglomerations and megacities in the developing world. Vulnerability of cities and local governments to disasters is on the rise especially as poor people settle in high-risk areas. Often, planning and development of cities has given little consideration to the consequences of hazards such as earthquakes, hydro-meteorological risks, and others. The implication of this reality is the need for countries to focus their collective energies to create a safer world for urban dwellers and develop a series of innovative approaches to meet this challenge. In this regard, building resilience and adapting to climate change is crucial for cities. Efforts to build resilience in cities and local governments can benefit from integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation with existing efforts in disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. This session will familiarize participants with the Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities - a tool that cities can use to create a baseline understanding of their resilience progress, identify gaps and needs and identify actions to enhance the level of disaster and climate resilience. The session will include a short presentation on the tool, a hands-on exercise for participants to practice using the tool, and sharing the experience of other local governments around the globe that have used the tools in identifying actions and taking the systematic approach to reducing disaster and climate risks. Participants will get an opportunity to share their experiences and cases during the group discussion. 

Session 4: Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) and Action Planning for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs 

The session will consist of further knowledge sharing by the Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative and a guest speaker, followed by action plan sharing among fellow participants. Through a series of collaborative works to come up with an action plan based on the knowledge gained from lectures and group activities, the participants will be able to enhance their understanding on riskinformed and ICT-based governance for DRR and resilience, as well as the MCR2030’s resilience roadmap framework and its network of partners for the implementation of the SDGs.
 

Event Date & Time

• 5, 7, 12, 14 July 2022 (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2 weeks)
• Total of 4 online sessions, 1 end-of-course assessment, and 1 post-course survey.
• All online sessions will be held for 180 minutes from 02:00 pm (Incheon).