Warner on learning from children at Davos

Davos Platz, location for the IDRC, is "the highest town in Europe", and quite possibly the most expensive - I have trouble paying $25 for a club sandwich! The amazing mountains surrounding us have unfortunately been covered in clouds and rain for the first two days of the conference, though this will not stop colleagues from using opportunities provided by breaks in sessions to get up into them to hike or even paraglide, especially if the latter involves getting strapped to some hunky guy – I mention no names!
Some 1,000 attendees have registered and collected their 3 massive (and heavy) volumes of abstracts and other printed materials. Today was full of lectures, plenaries and presentations – mainly one way, with not so much interaction with attendees so far. There were at least a couple of water shortages during the long sessions, and overruns squeezed lunch into a quick scoff of croissant and fruit – which at least made a change from the otherwise relentless Swiss diet of cheese and red meat.
It is quite amazing, that amongst the mountain of presenters during the 5 full days of the IDRC, I can find major NGO reps only from Oxfam (3) and Action Aid (1). By contrast there is a surfeit of donors here, with SDC here en masse. We have one ECHO person and one World Bank field person, but no DFID or USAID on the participant list.
If they were under-represented on stage, NGOs were active on the floor, with the first two questions coming from Provash Mondal (Oxfam GB in Vietnam) and Melisa Bodenhamer (World Vision International). Later contributions from the floor included a double attack on Coca Cola’s Europe and Middle East rep, alleging that the company’s financial response to recent disasters was a ‘façade’ in the light of their contribution to poor health around the world.
As ever, the networking is pretty full on. Time before, between and after sessions was filled with meetings, including with reps from UNISDR, UNDP, IFRC and numerous other agencies. There are lots of folks here from previous DRR meetings, but also lots of new faces. There were also surprises – like the demonstration of risk mapping and DRR education by two Japanese children which, at the end of the day, was the first concrete acknowledgement of the real side of work with the most vulnerable. Gave real meaning to the title of the UNISDR report ‘Let Our Children Teach Us’, whose release was a highlight of the day.
More news (and pictures) tomorrow – but first a thankyou to all of our ECB participants for attending and engaging with the larger external sector, to Nick for facilitating, to Ivonne for coming at the last meeting and being amazing support to Juan Manuel, to all three of our field staff for taking time from their essential work in the field, and finally to Heidi for immaculate arranging, smoothing, fixing, and attitude.

Warner