GFDRR is investing to help national governments lead and implement comprehensive risk reduction agendas and to coordinate between ministries. At the same time, municipal authorities are receiving technical support to implement new strategies at the local level.
Examples include:
In Haiti, a GFDRR grant supported the creation of a Vulnerability Reduction Unit (VRU) under Haiti’s Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation. The main objective of the VRU is to mainstream disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the national development agenda and to subsequently support its integration in sectoral policies, programs, and projects. The VRU is to help prepare Haiti’s first national framework for vulnerability reduction, expected in 2010. The VRU should also coordinate the preparation and execution of national recovery and reconstruction programs following adverse events. Additional VRUs are being created within Haiti’s Ministry of Public Works and Transportation and its Ministry of Education to support the training, preparation, and integration of DRR policies into their respective sectoral strategies and programs.
In Indonesia, GFDRR is supporting the implementation of a national policy framework for DRR, coordinated through a steering committee made up of representatives from Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), its National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), the UN Development Program (UNDP), and the World Bank. As a result of this support, Indonesia has made substantial progress in formulating its National Action Plan (NAP) for disaster risk reduction—known as NAP-DRR 2010-2013—to build capacity for DRR at national and sub-national levels. This plan includes Post-Disaster Needs Assessments (PDNAs), recovery planning, urban risk management, and land use and environmental rehabilitation. It is also developing a comprehensive risk financing strategy with GFDRR support.
Gender Equality
Women's knowledge and role in environmental and natural resource management as well as their role in community decision-making processes are an asset in the global effort to reduce risk and vulnerabilities to disasters. They are also among the most affected population when disaster strikes. GFDRR promotes a gender-inclusive approach to disaster risk reduction. At the policy level, GFDRR is committed to helping countries incorporate gender dimensions in national disaster risk reduction strategies and include programs targeted to women and children to ensure gender equity during planning recovery and reconstruction. In this context, empowering women is not just a way to strengthen community capacities to cope with disasters but also a key instrument to build an active citizenship that addresses development priorities, which are inextricably linked to reducing vulnerabilities.
A GFDRR project addressing community co-management for disaster risk management of coastal resources in Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Mauritania has a strong gender focus, since women in these areas are largely employed in the fish-processing sector and are among the groups most affected by marine resource depletion. Furthermore, a new partnership between policy makers and practitioners from three disaster prone countries (India, Guatemala and Honduras) is expected to catalyze and scale up women’s group initiatives for disaster risk reduction initiatives under GFDRR South-South Cooperation program. Women’s groups contribute to building community resilience and, through effective partnerships with local and national governments, can innovate and scale up locally led disaster risk reduction initiatives.
Bolstering National Capacities in Disaster Risk Reduction
Capacity development is a key component of many GFDRR projects that helps countries mainstream disaster risk reduction in their development plans. GFDRR’s investments for capacity building address the institutions in disaster-prone countries in a comprehensive, multi-sector fashion, spanning all government sectors (for example, line ministries and disaster management agencies) and levels (municipality, district, province, central government) that share responsibility for reducing the vulnerability of communities to disasters.
In Lao PDR, government staff representing sector ministries were trained on the methodology for damage and loss assessment. In Indonesia, the GFDRR program is guided by a steering committee of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the World Bank, and UNDP. The steering committee decided to support BNPB through training-of-trainers modules. Along with other programs, these efforts have strengthened recovery planning as well as capacities in PDNAs. Furthermore, at the municipal level an application of the Climate Resilient Cities primer is being piloted in three cities (Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya). This initiative is expected to lead to a mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in urban management through improved spatial/master plans, land use, and environmental rehabilitation.