Learning from disasters through event analyses

Time

09:00 - 10:30 CEST

About

How can we turn disasters into opportunities for learning and improved resilience? Join this network event to explore the role of event analyses as a key component of integrated disaster risk management. Drawing on Switzerland's well-established approach and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation's (SDC) experience supporting event analyses in countries such as Pakistan and Armenia, the webinar will highlight how lessons from past events can strengthen preparedness, improve risk reduction measures, and inform future decision-making. Featuring contributions from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), SDC, leading Swiss experts, and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the event will also explore how approaches such as After-Action Reviews can enhance disaster recovery readiness and resilience.

Event details

Larger disasters provide an opportunity to learn from them by performing an “event analysis”, a small but key part of integrated risk management, which is well-anchored in Switzerland’s approach to DRR. Event analyses serve to continually improve our understanding of hazard processes and provide insights into future measures for managing natural hazards. They also act, in a sense, as a means of monitoring progress in DRR, by showing whether the existing basic information is sufficient and whether the protective measures are sufficiently effective. Finally, well-documented events help to raise awareness of natural hazards and promote a risk-aware approach to managing them.

This network event will showcase Switzerland’s approach at home and SDC’s experience with supporting event analyses abroad (Pakistan, Armenia). Through the participation of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), it will allow to reflect on different approaches to learning from disasters.

Objectives

The webinar will convey a general understanding of the role that event analyses play in integrated risk management in Switzerland, how they are set up, and how the Swiss expertise can be used to support event analyses for DRR abroad, while aligning with UNDRR perspectives on using “After-Action Reviews” to enhance readiness for disaster recovery.

Inputs by:

• FOEN (Antoine Magnollay): on event analyses in Switzerland
• SDC (Regina Gujan): on the processes followed to support event analyses abroad
• Christoph Lehmann, Swiss lead expert on event analyses abroad: on the event analyses carried out with Swiss support in Pakistan and Armenia
• UNDRR (Emilia Wahlström / Paul Rosenberg): on using After-Action Reviews to enhance readiness for disaster recovery