Every day this week we’ll be sharing brief highlights from our network’s engagement at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) 2022.
The 7th GPDRR formally opened today. The official opening session set the tone for the sessions that are planned for the next three days and provided focus on the need for a coherent approach and resilience-building in rapidly changing risk scenarios.
Our secretariat held a morning briefing, joined by members who shared key highlights of the previous day.
GNDR is using this key global event to network, collaborate, and engage with partners, donors and government delegates of different countries with our call to action. We have so far had meetings with JICA, UNDRR representatives, ADRRN, GIZ, and government contingents from the Maldives.
The secretariat has also organised a donor roundtable event to present our 2020-25 strategy, strengthen donor relationships and showcase members’ work.
Our Innovation Booth, focused on risk-informed development, has gained a lot of interest.
The first official day included presentations by GNDR. Executive Director Bijay Kumar, spoke at the Breaking the Silos- Toward Multi- Hazard, Multi-Sectoral Approaches to Managing Risk session where he spoke of the need to bring coherence to strategies at the local level, demonstrated with an example from Indonesia. “We all make decisions every day – those most at risk of hazards are not excluded from this. Yet they are not part of the enabling environment including them in risk decisions. We must listen to their perspectives,” he said.
GNDR member organisation, Christian Blind Mission, presented on disability-inclusive DRR and highlighted gaps in the inclusion of persons with disabilities, as evidenced by our Views from the Frontline project.
Adessou Kossivi, our Regional Lead for Africa spoke at the Addressing Loss and Damage, Supporting the Most Vulnerable: Lessons from DRR and Climate Change Action session. Adessou called on the need to address the issue of loss and damage – especially for communities most at risk who are impacted by climate change. He brought attention to the fact that climate change provokes conflicts and displacement of communities, and is a growing issue.
All session recordings are available after each day of GPDRR on the UNDRR Youtube channel.