Inclusion

A community-based flood early warning system is being piloted at the border between Nepal and India. The integrated system in upstream communities disseminates flood information to vulnerable communities downstream. This system can provide communities hours to prepare for a flash flood, sufficient time to save themselves and their livestock.

Index-based insurance allows victims of disasters a continued access to finance, enabling them to build resilience against future risks. With a pre-determined index for the loss of assets, the insurance allows for a quicker and more objective process post-disaster. The World Bank has released a practical guide for insurers to mainstream this insurance type.

Humanitarian organizations usually act after a disaster, even when there has been a forecast available. Climate Centre specialists are calling for a linkage between forecast-based financing and social protection systems in order to include early action and preparedness for climate shocks.

Many factors make people susceptible to traffickers in disaster affected areas, including the loss of homes, food supplies, children separated from their families, migration and pre-existing vulnerabilities such as poverty. Understanding the ways in which a disaster will affect these factors is critical to anticipating methods of exploitation and countering modern slavery.

River basins are attractive development areas while also being at risk from overflowing rivers, requiring great efforts to coordinate flood risk management. The World Bank has compiled recommendations and examples of flood risk management at basin river scale in a new working paper based on global practice.

To secure economic progress in the ASEAN over the next half-century, leaders in Southeast Asia must focus on climate change in policy making. As initiatives in Vietnam and India demonstrate, relatively low investments can prevent severe climate events from becoming a disaster, with billions of dollars saved in the decades ahead.

As India celebrates its 70th Independence Day, climate change impacts are becoming increasingly imminent. States and cities are stepping up their resilience work by expanding their heat action plans and early warning systems. Declining heat related deaths in India during the past three years point to successful continuous work to tackle climate disasters.