Workshop on climate change, humanitarian disasters and international development : linking vulnerability, risk reduction and response capacity workshop report / prepared by Jennifer West.

"Funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Noway"

"Organised by CICERO and GECHS.

Accessed on 17/01/2008

Cover title.

Executive summary -- First Session: Contexts in which disaster occur -- Second Session: Challenges and opportunities for addressing climate change -- Panel Discussion on integrating development and climate policies -- Concluding remarks: Practical implications for Norwegian development policy, humanitarian aid, and research.

"The workshop brought together national and international researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to discuss the common challenges uniting the traditionally distinct fields of climate change, humanitarian disasters, and international development. Participants recognised that in recent years climate-induced natural hazards such as hurricanes, floods and droughts have resulted in humanitarian disasters that have reversed years of development progress, and that these trends are likely to intensify in the future unless concerted action is taken. The suggested focus on moving toward an integrated agenda led to an initial insight that if local, national and international actors are to successfully prepare for, respond to and recover from weather-related disasters and reduce poverty, then strategies for managing disaster risks and climate impacts must be integrated into international development and humanitarian policies. Nonetheless, achieving an integrated approach is not without its challenges. Several speakers at the workshop noted that excessive integration, or ?integration for the sake of integration? - should be approached with caution. There are legitimate concerns within the disaster risk reduction community, for example, that climate change adaptation and general development activities are drawing funding away from needed disaster risk reduction activities and programmes. This leads to competition, rather than cooperation. Despite the challenges for integration, many participants agreed that there remains a broad scope and a real need for more and better cooperation and integration across these disciplines to achieve positive and long-lasting outcomes. Participants agreed that integrated approaches to climate change, humanitarian disasters and poverty reduction must move beyond definitions of potential synergies, toward defining realistic divisions of roles, responsibilities and funding. A third insight from the workshop concerns the importance of considering human security in efforts to minimise the effects of climate change and the incidence of poverty and humanitarian disasters. Participants acknowledged that vulnerability to both climate change and natural hazards is increasing in many parts of the globe due to a range of social, economic and environmental changes, including rising poverty, increased urbanization, loss of agricultural incomes, spread of infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, and violent conflict. Climate change presents new challenges to how disasters are managed, and particularly to how vulnerability is reduced and in the long term. Therefore, reducing the vulnerability of human populations to climate change and humanitarian disasters is a key to achieving successful adaptation to climate change as well as improvements in human security and human development." -- p. 5.