gFSC/KORE Webinar: Reducing disaster risk vulnerability in Bangladesh – Partner perspectives on Forecast-based-Financing

Evidence shows that the frequency and intensity of climate-driven natural disasters and conflicts is increasing. Natural disasters are occurring nearly five times as often compared with 40 years ago, placing a huge burden on local economies and putting millions of people in a vicious cycle of food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty. Expanding needs, competing priorities and scarce resources globally mean that new, smart and effective tools and investments are needed to help attenuate the impact of disasters before they occur. Acting early before a disaster is critical: it can save lives, protect livelihoods from the immediate shocks and protect longer term development gains by increasing the resilience of local communities over time.

As many climate-related hazards can be forecast, the international community has formally committed to moving progressively towards a more anticipatory approach in humanitarian assistance. Much emphasis is now made on the importance to shift the focus from response to prevention and mitigation, and to adapt financing modalities accordingly.

Forecast-based Financing (FbF) releases humanitarian funding based on forecast information for pre-agreed activities reducing risks, enhancing preparedness and response, and making disaster risk reduction within the humanitarian assistance overall more effective.

This webinar is the second event of a mini-series on FbF and is jointly organized with the KORE - FAO's Knowledge Sharing Platform on Resilience. It will be an opportunity to present and discuss experiences of Food Security Clusters, Cluster Lead Agencies and partners to strengthen community preparedness and resilience. In particular, the webinar will present experiences of FbF activities introduced in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world and extremely vulnerable to climate change. Aside from floods, Bangladesh grapples with strong tropical storms and cyclones in the southern coastal belt, as well as droughts and earthquakes. In 2016, the World Food Programme and the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, with support from the German Red Cross and the German Government, rolled-out FbF in Bangladesh and established consensus in favour of cash-based preparedness actions in both flood- and cyclone-prone project areas. The FbF project is focusing on the impacts of river floods, tropical storms and cyclones. In addition to the distribution of health and hygiene kits that aim to ensure access to safe drinking water and reducing the risk of waterborne diseases, unconditional cash transfers have been used in pilot communities allowing people to evacuate their families and their belongings to safe areas without selling all their assets.

Wednesday 6 December 2017 - 10.00-11.30 CET (UTC/GMT +1)

To join, register here

Speakers:

Dr Thorsten Klose-Zuber, Division for Humanitarian Assistance – Policy, International Organisations, Multilateral Coordination; German Federal Foreign Office

Manuela Reinfeld, Head of Analysis and Early Warning, WFP

Damien Joud, Food Security Cluster Coordinator, Food Security Cluster Bangladesh

Alexandra Rüth, Head of Task Force Humanitarian Adaptation to Climate Change (FbF), German Red Cross

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