Online presentation and Q&A | The Words into Action Guidelines on Disaster Displacement – How to reduce risk, address impacts and strengthen resilience

October 8, 2020
Events

Online presentation and Q&A

on the Words into Action Guidelines on Disaster Displacement – How to reduce risk, address impacts and strengthen resilience

recorded at the Occasion of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction

Tuesday 13 October 2020, 14:00-15:00 CEST (Geneva time)

New York time, EDT (UTC-4), 08:00 – 09:00

Bangkok time, ICT (UTC+7), 19:00 – 20:00

Nairobi time, EAT (UTC+3), 15:00 –16:00

1. Background

Held every 13 October, the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) celebrates how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of reining in the risks that they face. In 2020, the focus of the IDDRR is on Target (E) of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (Sendai Framework): ‘Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020’. With a focus on “It’s all about governance”, the IDDRR is an apt opportunity to explore the integration of disaster displacement considerations into disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy and practice, as a means to improve risk governance. This online event will identify key issues related to disaster displacement and the tools available to address displacement risk in DRR strategies towards the achievement of Target (E).

Disasters have devastating impacts on people, households and communities. In 2019, there were 24.9 million new displacements caused by disasters across 140 countries and territories according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). In the first half of 2020 alone, the IDMC in its mid-year update also records 9.8 million new displacements caused by disasters; as numbers are usually larger in the second semester, it is expected that disaster displacement figures will be at least at the same level this year as in 2019. Both sudden-onset and slow-onset disasters, such as droughts, floods, rising sea levels, land degradation and storms, cause millions of people to leave their homes every year, moving either within their own country or abroad.

Disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management practitioners, in coordination with humanitarian and development actors, climate change adaptation and human mobility experts, have an important role to play to prevent persons from being displaced in these contexts and receive the protection they need where evacuation or other types of displacement cannot be avoided.

The Sendai Framework recognizes disaster displacement – the forced or involuntary movement of people associated with disasters – as an important concern. The deadline for Target (E) implementation is 2020; all countries should aim at designing DRR strategies at a national and local level, reducing the risk of disaster displacement and related human suffering in line with Target (B), which aims to substantially reduce the number of people affected by disasters globally.

As a tool to support States and DRR practitioners to systematically incorporate displacement considerations in their DRR policies and strategies, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) published the Words into Action (WiA) guidelines – Disaster Displacement: How to Reduce Risk, Address Impacts and Strengthen Resilience, following a consultative process.

The development of the WiA guidelines on disaster displacement was a collaborative effort, led by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in support of the Platform on Disaster Displacement’s efforts to ensure that future DRR strategies include disaster displacement risk, as set out in the Sendai Framework. The German Federal Foreign Office, IDMC, Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), UNDRR, International Organization for Migration (IOM), and UN Office for the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were members of the working group developing the guidelines. The governments of Germany, Norway and Switzerland provided financial support for the development of the guide and its implementation at the national level

UNDRR, PDD and NRC are collaborating to support interested States in using the guidelines to address disaster displacement in their national and regional DRR strategies and policies. Based on the WiA guidelines, a checklist is being developed alongside an e-learning tool.

2. Audience and Objectives

Building on the objective of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR), which this year focuses on Target (E), the proposed event has set the following objectives:

Highlight disaster displacement as a key issue for DRR practitioners to address, in coordination with climate change, migration, humanitarian, development and human rights stakeholders and across sectors;
Present tools available to DRR practitioners to address disaster displacement such as the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda and the WiA guidelines on disaster displacement;
Disseminate and promote the WiA guidelines on disaster displacement at the occasion of the International Day for DRR focusing on Target E in 2020; and,
Share the event recording as a resource for future reference for practitioners interested in the WiA guidelines on disaster displacement.

The session is aimed at national DRR/ DRM focal points within governments who are interested in learning more about disaster displacement and/or wish to include human mobility in their DRR strategies and policies. The event will be recorded and made available to the wider public, informing any interested academics, practitioners, government focal points etc. of the tool and the context.

3. Background documents

UNDRR Words into Action guidelines – Disaster displacement: How to reduce risk, address impacts and strengthen resilience

Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda

UNDRR Target E – Sendai Framework Monitor

Further information on the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction

UNDRR website

4. Programme

14:00-14:05	Welcome and setting the context: an online presentation and Q&A on a tool developed for DRR practitioners to address disaster displacement Moderator: Sarah Koeltzow, Policy Officer, PDD Secretariat
	3-5 min answers to one question each:
14:05-14:10	What is disaster displacement? Bina Desai, Head of Policy and Research, IDMC
14:10-14:15	What can DRR actors do about disaster displacement? Ezekiel Simperingham, Asia Pacific Regional Migration and Displacement Coordinator, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
14:15-14:20	Why do we talk about disaster displacement at International DRR Day focusing on Target E? Animesh Kumar, Deputy Chief of UNDRR Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
14:20-14:25	Which global tools other than the Sendai Framework address disaster displacement? Atle Solberg, Head of the Secretariat, PDD
14:25-14:30	Which tools are available for DRR actors to address disaster displacement? Silvi Llosa, Consultant, NRC
14:30-14:35	What support can interested DRR actors obtain to implement these tools? Nina Birkeland, Senior Adviser on Disaster Displacement and Climate Change, NRC
14.35-14.40	How does it look like at the regional level, to implement the WiA on disaster displacement? Juan Carlos Méndez, PDD Regional Adviser for the Americas and the Caribbean
14:45-14:55	Answers to frequent questions submitted before the session by interested stakeholders and/or submitted during the session via the Q&A box
14:55-15:00	Wrap Up and Closing