Concept Note:

Theme

Anticipatory Action to Meet the Challenges of the Climate Change Crisis

Dates

19th - 21st October 2021: from 10am to 2pm Bangkok time each day.

Objectives

1. To share knowledge and evidence from AA implementations, scale-ups and evaluations
2. To learn from country examples on collaboration and scaling-up
3. To use lessons learned, roadblocks, and milestones for a joint way forward

Topics

Anticipatory Action Addressing Climate Change Impacts

• Multi-partner, multi-sectoral, and localised AA: for a joint understanding of current and future climate risks and identification of effective early actions to address the climate crisis
• Experience & Evidence: Share lessons learned from recent AA evaluations and ways to integrate a CCA perspective in AA implementations
• AA Financing: from community-level to national legislation and donor commitments, including climate financing instruments & tools
• Market Place

How to do Anticipatory Action more Effectively in Asia Pacific

• Steps towards mainstreaming and institutionalising Anticipatory Action in governments and intergovernmental bodies and systems
• Identifying milestones and roadblocks for a successful AA implementation and joint way forward
• Finding a common ground for joint advocacy messages on AA in Asia Pacific

Anticipatory Action Plus

• Health
• Conflict contexts
• Displacement
• Risk Insurance
• Adaptive Social Protection

Participants profile

The Dialogue Platform will be an interactive online event and welcomes practitioners, government representatives, and scientists with experience or interest in Anticipatory Action in Asia Pacific. Nominated participants are encouraged to share learnings and should have experience in Forecast-based Financing, Early Warning Early Action, DRR, Community Early Warning Systems, Disaster Risk Financing, or hydro meteorological forecasting.

Background

In its fifth iteration, the Asia Pacific Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action brings together practitioners, scientists, and government representatives from the region. The increasing momentum and the experience from various AA activations and simulations will allow for a rich exchange and an opportunity for cross-country learnings. 

Every year, the region is affected by dozens of extreme weather events, such as tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions, displacement and diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the Asia Pacific region greatly, affecting the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.

Location

This year’s Dialogue Platform will be held virtually. Details on the online platform will be shared in early October.

Facilitation methodology

The Dialogue Platform will feature plenaries from high level speakers on Anticipatory Action, interactive panel discussion and workshops, games, virtual tours, breakout sessions.

Organizers

The 5th Asia-Pacific Dialogue Platform is hosted by the Anticipation Hub and jointly organised by the German Red Cross (GRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Start Network. This Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

ABOUT

Since 2007, a pioneer in Forecast-based Financing (FbF), the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has been promoting the use of forecast for early action. With support from the German Red Cross and the German Federal Foreign Office, FbF projects were piloted in 2014. In collaboration with a growing number of other partners, a total of 15 Red Cross / Red Crescent National Societies in Africa, Americas and the Asia Pacific are currently developing FbF. By using this approach, forecasts have successfully triggered early action by National Societies in Peru, Togo, Uganda, Bangladesh and Mongolia.
Organized biannually in Geneva in 2015-2016 as part of the German Federal Foreign Office Action Plan on the Humanitarian Adaptation to Climate Change, the Dialogue Platform has since 2017 been held annually in Berlin in order to connect scientists, humanitarians, donors, governments and other relevant stakeholders. As a result of the growing interest and work on FbF worldwide and to strengthen regional coordination and exchange, the first Regional Dialogue Platform was held in Vietnam in June 2017. In 2018, Regional Dialogue Platforms in Kenya, Malaysia and Peru gathered around 300 people to discuss the concept, methodology and funding mechanisms and to exchange on lessons learned and create synergies.

One major milestone in the further development of the FbF methodology was the launch of the Forecast-based Action by the DREF in April 2018. The fund enables access to immediate, reliable and sustainable funding for early action based on in-depth forecast information and risk analysis PRIOR to a disaster.

This year's Asia Pacific Regional Dialogue Platform will be hosted by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) on 25 - 27 June 2019 in Manila, Philippines. 
                                                                                    

The event is organized in partnership by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), German Red Cross (GRC) and Finnish Red Cross (FRC), in close cooperation with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Oraganisation of the UN (FAO), Start Network and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and financially supported by the Federal Foreign Office.

OBJECTIVES

• Enhancing understanding of the FbF concept, funding mechanism, and methodology
• Fostering collaboration and partnership in the area of Forecast-based Financing among key actors that are working to reduce the risk of disasters and improve preparedness for response using the window of opportunity between a forecast and a potential disaster.

PARTICIPANT CRITERIA

The Platform will be a highly interactive event and is open for organizations with experience, upcoming plans, interest and potentials to implement or collaborate on FbF in the Asia Pacific region. Nominated participants should have knowledge and experience in hydrometeorology forecasting, Forecast-based Financing, Early Warning Early Action, risk monitoring, IM/data, community early warning systems and/or anticipatory humanitarian financing.

Please note that space to attend the Asia Pacific Regional Dialogue Platform is limited and attendance is by invitation only. Spots to attend will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

If you have any questions regarding your registration or the event in general, please do not hesitate to contact us:

German Red Cross

Greta Aubke

E-mail: g.aubke@drk.de

Dialogue Platform of the Federal Foreign Office Action Plan for the Humanitarian Adaptation to Climate Change

Introduction

Natural disasters are part of everyday life in more and more parts of our world. With global climate change aggravating the occurrence and intensity of extreme weather phenomena there is an increasing need to manage these risks differently. While climate change poses a distinct challenge in situations of ever-growing complexity, the majority of today’s natural hazards are predictable. It is therefore possible to prevent their devastating impacts, if risk information is utilized to act early and act effectively. Using forecasts as a tool to improve disaster preparedness needs an integrated approach to close the gap between disaster relief interventions and longer-term disaster risk reduction measures. In light of this challenge the Federal Foreign Office announced the Action Plan for Humanitarian Adaptation to Climate Change in 2014. To improve preparedness for response in the reality of a changing climate an innovative mechanism based on extreme weather forecasts will be developed and tested in eight pilot projects.

Objective of the Dialogue Platform and Workshops

In four workshops hosted in Geneva over the next two years the Dialogue Platform works on establishing a space for solutions on climate change adaptation by drawing together the ideas of experts from a range of disciplines. The first and second workshop in 2015 brought together over 80 humanitarian practitioners, climate scientists, donor agencies and government representatives. Experience from current pilots by the World Food Programme and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement (National Societies and the Climate Centre) was blended with scientific expertise to fine-tune the Forecast-based financing (Fbf) concept and share lessons and expertise. In the third workshop expertise on the practice of developing and implementing standard operating procedures (SOP’s) based on probabilities is needed. The pilot projects hosted in Mozambique, Peru and Bangladesh (implemented by the German Red Cross) and in Haiti/Dominican Republic, Nepal, Bangladesh and Philippines (implemented by the World Food Programme) are working on implementing the innovative Forecast-based financing mechanism simultaneously. Their experience and lessons learned are essential to shape a methodology with which to apply the Fbf mechanism in a broader context.

Strategic Objectives of the Foreign Office Action Plan

In the first phase, from 2014 to 2016, the main targets are to:

• Advocate a paradigm shift towards an anticipatory humanitarian system (HFA2 2015 and WHS 2016);
• Establish a multi-stakeholder dialogue platform;
• Connect and improve existing extreme weather forecast systems;
• Develop a Forecast-based financing (Fbf) methodology;
• Conduct national climate risk analyses.

The second phase of the Action Plan, from 2017-2019, will focus on:

• Developing a Fbf financing mechanism for the Federal Foreign Office;
• Establishing a network of high-risk countries prepared to implement Fbf with different partners and guarantee regional exchange on technical questions;
• Continue working on the introduction of Fbf in various policy processes;
• Feeding back lessons learned in the development of the Fbf methodology;
• Guarantee the quality of Fbf implementation through a good technical advice and exchange on regional levels.