Disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change
Is climate change going to bring more and worse disasters? If it does, what needs to be done to adapt to it? Climate change is expected to increase the intensity (and possibly frequency) of severe weather events. Many organisations are working hard on disaster risk reduction for existing natural hazards – how will they respond to the greatly increased challenge of worsening hazards?
But there is more: How should adaptation to worsening disasters connect with organisations that are dealing with existing problems of development, poverty-reduction, gender equity, environmental degradation challenging people and organisations?
For several decades, agencies that have dealt with development problems have often worked in isolation from those dealing with disasters. Does climate change offer the chance to bring these two areas together, so that adaptation deals with both sets of issues side-by-side?
This course, the fourth in a series of short courses at the new International Centre for Climate Change and Development, will be relevant to staff of organisations (both government as well as non-government) that deal with disasters or development issues. It will increase their knowledge and understanding of how to deal with disasters and climate change, and how to link disaster risk reduction with development in the process of adaptation.
ICCCAD courses are run on a highly participatory basis, with a variety of activities that enable learning and sharing of knowledge between participants. A goal-oriented process is used to ensure that participants leave with a clear “work plan” that shows how they will use the knowledge from the course in their own job and to influence their organisation in the direction that will increase capacity for dealing with that set of problems. The course includes a short (normally two day) field visit to expose participants to relevant issues and actors in the context of Bangladesh.
Topics will include
Climate science - what are the risks of changes to extreme events – frequency and intensity?
Vulnerability and natural hazards - using a vulnerability analysis approach to disaster risk reduction
Dealing with tropical cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes, floods, flash floods
Assessing gender impacts of disasters under conditions of climate change, and integration of gender issues into DRR
What is community-based disaster Management (CBDM), and what are its benefits and limits?
How is adaptation to extreme events linked up with problems of development, livelihoods and climate change trends that affect everyday life?