Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA)

Selvaraju Ramasamy

Climate & Environment Division (NRC), FAO

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through:

• analysing and management of their causal factors

• reducing exposure to hazards

• lessen the vulnerability of people and assets

• improving management of the land and environment

• preparing for adverse events

Climate Change Adaptation (CCA)

• Adaptation refers to changes in processes, practices, and structures to moderate potential damages or to benefit from opportunities associated with climate change. This includes:

– adjusting ecological, social, or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects or impacts.

– adapting development to gradual changes in average temperature, sea level and precipitation; and

– reducing and managing the risks associated with more frequent, severe and unpredictable extreme weather events

DR

R

CC

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UNFCCCSendai

Frame-work 2015 - 2030

Elements of Adaptation

• Observation • Assessment• Planning• Implementation• Monitoring & Evaluation

Reduce Vulnerability, Increase Adaptive Capacity, Moderate Potential Damage and Enhancing Resilience

International Processes and Global Agendas

Priorities for Action

• Understanding disaster risk• Strengthening disaster risk governance• Investing in disaster risk reduction for

resilience• Enhancing disaster preparedness for

effective response

Rationale for harnessing synergies between CCA and DRR

• Simplification of the burden of programming for development assistance

• Minimising duplication of effort and redundancies

• Reducing potential conflicts in policy development

• Making efficient use of scarce resources, and

• The increasing recognition, especially at community level, that both interventions converges

Barriers of harnessing synergies between DRR and CCA

• Global & National Agendas: Separate global and national frameworks for CCA and DRR.

• Capacity constraints: lack of coordination, communication, insufficient funds and absence of technical capacity.

• Institutional constraints: Different ministries and institutions; lack of implementation arms at local level

• Development Agendas: Inadequate integration into development & sectoral policies and programmes

Approaches to facilitate synergies/ integration

• Observation and Understanding: Improved access to practical weather and climate change information at all levels.

• Risk governance, planning and promoting enabling environment: Integration of mutual concerns into sectoral planning and programming

• Investment and implementation: Fitting to the broader development context,coordination among various actors, sharing of good practices and community based approaches of DRR and CCA (E.g. CBA, CBDRR)

• Monitoring and evaluation: tracking the progress and avoiding mal- adaptation

• Addressing residual risks: Enhance preparedness and effective response

Thank You