The "meat in the sandwich" day

Today was the "meat in the sandwich" day. The first piece of plain bread was the high level dialog day which Paul spoke of in his blog post, and tomorrow is the review of what today brought. Today was really supposed to be the tasty stuff.

There were over 15 workshops and lunch sessions to chose from - many of the topics have already been mentioned on my first blog post - education, national platforms, mainstreaming, implementation of Hyogo, etc. The morning session I selected was entitled "ecosystems and environmental management for risk reduction" and in the afternoon I went to "incorporating disaster risk reduction into preparedness."

So here is the skinny from our panelists discussing ecosystems/environmental management:

Environmental managers are usually on the supply side of hazard information to Governments (even when Governments haven't even asked for it) - but they aren't really good at transferring this information into action - especially in communities. The action part is something NGOs are good at, especially at a community level. There is a call for more partnerships between environmental managers and NGOs to utilize the skills of environmental managers in disaster management. The environmental folks can help provide the scientific knowledge of hazards and work with our communities on the best way mitigate against these hazards.

One presenter argued that there are a lot of models for good DRR that all require science - short term planning can be focused on contingency planning but medium term planning should include environmental assessments and management plans, and in the longer term spatial and socio-economic planning is important. This provides the argument that DRR cannot be seen within the humanitarian sector.

In a presentation focused on the Caribbean, there were some good examples of ensuring that disaster management units were linked to the environmental agenda.

Lastly, there was a very convincing presentation from Sri Lanka that showed just how natural and artificial strategies can be used for mitigation efforts in coastal zones. The most interesting on the natural side were the preservation and encouragement of mangroves, sand dunes, and coastal vegetation.

The afternoon session had more panelists than I can remember, but probably the most practical good practice was an example was from the Red Cross in Jamaica. In a nutshell, the Red Cross and a few partners including the Government of Jamaica signed an MOU to support a few high risk villages to wind/storms. They worked with these communities to create response plans including evacuation routes, put together response teams with training in first aid and search and rescue, and some basic equipment. It just so happens that literally days after the training, there was news that Hurricane Ivan was going to touch down in 72 hours. Within hours of hearing the news, the newly formed response teams activated their newly formed disaster plans, and put their early warning system to use, warning all the villagers to go to the shelters. On the same day the shelters were opened, and they were successful in getting a complete evacuation of these communities, ensuring the safety of all.

The other exciting moment of this session is when our colleagues from Tearfund and an ECHO panelist had a bit of a back and forth about the percentage of money given to preparedness. While ECHO was encouraged to do more, it is pretty evident to everyone that they are the leading donor in this area and they were encouraged to do more advocacy for DRR with other donors, particularly on the development side.

Our NGO colleagues scattered amidst all the workshops today so it will be great to come together in plenary tomorrow to get a taste of the other learning that went on from the various events. Provided of course, the other half of the sandwich is a fresh baguette instead of the rather stale bread we had on Tuesday.

We'll continue to keep you posted!

Susan Romanski