Red Cross / EU Office

European Development Days 2009 - Red Cross side event - Early Warning - Early Action


Some 5,000 people from around the world - from students and civil society organisations to Nobel peace-prize laureates and Heads of state discussed how to effectively ensure poverty eradication and sustainable development at this years European Development Days event held from 22-24 October in Stockholm.
 
In several panel discussions and side events key points were raised and suggestions made on whats needed next, particularly from the European Union in the coming days and weeks, to put development cooperation on the right course.
 
The Red Cross side event

The side event was jointly organised by the Red Cross/EU Office; Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre; Swedish Red Cross; Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction; European Commission DG ECHO and DG DEVELOPMENT; CONCORD Sweden; Institute of Development Studies, IDS; Plan Internationals EU Liaison Office, Plan Sweden and Save the Children Sweden

The speakers were:

 

Climate change is a fact and the impact of climate change, in particular the increase of weather related disasters, epidemics and plagues is already being observed and felt. Women and children in the worlds poorest communities are the most vulnerable. It is at this level that action needs to be taken to strengthen their resilience against the impacts of climate change.
 
A new global UN climate change agreement will be founded on national climate change policies, and so adaptation will mostly take place at the local level and should prioritise the most vulnerable communities and people, especially women and children. But are their interests and needs reflected in the final rounds of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations?
 
Key points:
 
At the humanitarian response level Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is an approach which receives more and more attention but it has to move up another level towards the development agenda.
 
Adaptation actions to give priority to addressing underlying drivers of vulnerability (e.g. poor governance, unsustainable livelihoods, food insecurity, environmental degradation)
 
Governments have formulated policies on DRR but implementation is hard and takes time. Top down is not systematically approached. Bottom up actions are needed to raise resilience in communities.
 
Impact of DRR is fragmented. The process needs to move to get both levels (policy & implementation) closer together.
 
Proper mechanisms between the local, district and national level are needed in order to ensure effective implementation of climate adaptation measures. Those mechanisms will also need to ensure spaces for childrens and womens groups to have real and meaningful participation in the process.
 
The UNFCCC process and the implementation of the forthcoming Post-Kyoto Agreement have a lot to learn from the process of implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action. In many countries mechanisms already exist between the national, district and local level that can be used for the implementation of adaptation measures.

 
Do you need a disaster to become aware of disaster risk reduction? Most of the people on the panel agreed that disasters raise public awareness as a catalyst of change and that it is easier to mobilise people when a disaster happens. But what is already happening in the local communities? Climate adaptation strategies can in fact should build on the existing capacities of people and families: their local knowledge, livelihoods and social networks.
How can we build capacity at community level? Facilitators are needed to spread DRR through the communities. Governments and local authorities have an important role to play. Authorities need to replicate models used currently by NGOs. In Indonesia, for example, the process works quite well. The policies are there but it takes a long time to reach the ground. Most of the time community-based organisations are better positioned. The know how is there but resources need to be optimised. Ownership on local level needs to go through local partnerships (authorities / communities / NGOs)

The international community should provide the policy context, backed up by solid financial mechanisms. It is crucial that the new Post-Kyoto climate change agreement to be signed in Copenhagen will become a supportive instrument, not a stumbling block for local action.

Donor agencies, for their part, can no longer afford to provide funding for disasters primarily after the fact, for relief, recovery and reconstruction. The cost is rising and compromising regular development instruments. Both development assistance and humanitarian action can be made more effective by increased emphasis on early action - disaster preparedness does not need a lot of money. Experiences from several countries illustrate that the savings are huge when preparedness is happening.

Quotes:


The European Development Days in general

Speaker after speaker identified the heart of the problem standing in the way of poverty eradication and sustainable development as ineffective support to essential drivers of change in developing countries. Culture must encourage people to speak up without fear of reprisal. Well-functioning, transparent public institutions must be in place and laws must be implemented to ensure multi-stakeholder involvement in an accountable government decision-making process at all levels. Developing countries governments must then have the space and support to be able to come up with and follow their own development plans at their own pace, not have these imposed on them from outside. All this will lead to strong governments managing affairs for the public good and which can then dialogue effectively with international donors on what support they need in the process. International development assistance, both EU and developing country participants said, can then be successful.

This idea of domestic accountability is not new. What is new is that it is high on the international policy agenda now. Nearly all European Development Days participants argued that current donor development support is not geared to helping achieve this.
 
As nearly every intervention recalled, the world has fundamentally changed in the past year as a result of the global economic crisis. The challenges for the worlds most vulnerable people hardest hit by it are urgent and enormous. And there is also a rare window of opportunity that has emerged to establish global and EU systems and to put mechanisms in place that will ensure that policies to help support efforts in developing countries to end poverty are effectively implemented. The stakes are high for the worlds poor if things dont change.

The key question of course is HOW to do this? This is clearly a historic opportunity to put sustainable development efforts on the right track. This years European Development Days provided a forum for some of the worlds greatest minds on topics affecting development at this critical juncture. Participants said that history will not judge us well if we let unacceptable global poverty continue in the 21st century. Will next years European Development Days be able to debate concrete actions to move forward on a new, effective path to poverty reduction and sustainable development?

For more information, please contact Martin Krottmayer: martin.krottmayer@redcross-eu.net
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

International Development