Changing climate,changing disasters
Pathways to integration
The Climate Smart Disaster Risk Management (CSDRM) approach supports you to tackle disasters, poverty and adaptation through improved integration. It’s for disaster risk managers, created by disaster risk managers.
“What would a climate smart organisation, programme or policy look like in the real world?” This was the single question that began an intense collaboration of over 1000 leading disaster risk management (DRM) practitioners and policymakers in ten at-risk countries across Asia and Africa over two years.
The answer emerged: “Get people talking the same language about disasters, poverty and adaptation; use partner networks to fill our capacity gaps; and empower communities to learn and reflect by including them in discussions about their concerns, vulnerabilities and risks.” The pay-off is less inefficiency, duplication and frustration for practitioners, policymakers and the communities they work for. This is where you come in. You are an expert in your field, working in tough conditions with little time to process huge amounts of information. You make life-or-death decisions about disaster programmes or policies. You know a lot about what you do. But knowing is not enough.
The challenge is to integrate your knowledge on disaster risk with climate change adaptation (CCA) and development perspectives. Isn’t this already happening? We may think we are incorporating climate change adaptation research and development ideas into our work, but just consider how DRM, CCA and development practitioners communicate with each other – sometimes it can feel as though we’re speaking our own languages where the same words mean very different things.
For example, define the following terms: ‘uncertainty’, ‘vulnerability’ or ‘adaptive capacity’. Now go and ask someone you know who focuses on climate change or development what each term means to them. Chances are their understanding comes from a completely different perspective. The result: dangerous oversights caused by a failure to connect, draw on each other’s experience and integrate the way we prepare and respond to sudden and chronic disasters. This applies to all disasters, but especially those exacerbated by climate change.
For more information contact:
Strengthening Climate Resilience
Institute of Development Studies
Brighton
BN1 9RE UK
T: +44 (0)1273 606 261
E:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.csdrm.org
