Welcome to the United Nations
Executive Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark demonstration that risk is more systemic than ever in a connected globalized world: what was initially a health disaster quickly became a socio-economic disaster with long-term impact, highlighting the urgent need for a whole-of-society approach towards prevention and risk-informed recovery and development to achieve the SDGs. This report presents the results of a 2020 survey and literature review conducted by the Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism (SEM) of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). It features lessons learned and insights on how DRR stakeholders around the world have leveraged existing disaster risk reduction (DRR) programmes and initiated new ones to achieve the SDGs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery. The greatest threat to sustainability are natural hazards and man-made disasters which can serve to undermine gains made: this report highlights some lessons learned and recommendations that can support a sustainable and resilient Covid-19 recovery. More broadly, it highlights the need for a risk-informed approach to development.
Key Insights
The survey and literature review revealed a breadth and depth of insights in relation to the implementation of existing and new DRR programmes, the nature of partnerships and collaboration, key gaps and challenges, and recommendations for enhancing DRR programming and risk-informed development. Four key insights in particular emerged from this report. These are summarized below.
Insight #1: Risk-informed development should be cross-cutting in efforts to achieve the SDGs
The SEM survey revealed a range of challenges that need to be overcome to enhance DRR and resilience programming and achieve the SDGs. There was consistency with the results of the broader desk review, showing that policy coherence is a key challenge (i.e., horizontal across agencies and vertical among levels of government, including with the local level), as is the need to strengthen food security and the resilience of SMEs to disasters, including supply chain logistics.
Other challenges were related to misinformation, weak or non-existent social protection systems, competition among partners for resources, and lack of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure. These all point to more systemic issues that need to be addressed going forward to enhance DRR programming. This finding was also reflected in the SEM survey results pertaining the top recommendations made by organizations, including calls for improved policy coherence, localization of programmes to better address ground-based issues, the strengthening of key systems (i.e., food security, access to water, healthcare, social protection and supply chains), attention to vulnerable groups and leaving no one behind, and better collaboration and co-creation with government partners.
Insight #2: Insufficient focus on risk-informed planning, prevention and preparedness in development processes
There was insufficient focus by governments, the UN system, civil society organizations (CSOs), and the private sector on evidence-based risk and vulnerability assessments to help prevent and prepare for pandemic risk. Of the 39 case examples observed through the SEM global survey, only two addressed pandemic hazard prevention. No examples of existing pandemic preparedness programmes were received. An overall gap was identified for risk-informed planning, analysis of risks and vulnerability assessments at the community and institutional levels.
The desk review of other surveys and literature echoed this overall lack of attention to pandemic prevention and preparedness. For instance, the Global Network of Civil Society Organizations for Disaster Reduction concluding that “the impacts of this pandemic could have been prevented if lessons learnt from prior disease outbreaks as well as scientific and community-led research, had been taken into account in health services, global supply chains, transport systems, academic curriculum, and the tourism sector (GNDR 2021).” A similar message was conveyed by the United Nations International Organization for Migration in noting that given best practices learned during previous Ebola, SARS, MERS and H1N1 outbreaks, “too little has been done to mitigate biological hazards in disaster risk reduction strategies pursued by governments (IOM 2020).”
Insight #3: CSOs Adapted Swiftly During the Pandemic by Leveraging Existing Local Development and DRR Networks and Programmes in response to new/emerging hazards
The SEM survey results and desk review showed that many organizations were able to swiftly adapt existing DRR programmes designed for other hazards and quickly initiate new ones which contributed to reducing exposure and vulnerability and building adaptive capacity in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Key elements of success were local presence, partnerships and existing networks of trusted relationships with vulnerable groups. These actions were seen across all facets of DRR in the immediate wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
- Hazard reduction (i.e., reducing the COVID-19 hazard by raising awareness of the potential for
zoonotic spillover due to community expansion, deforestation, and consumption and trade of wild
meat); - Exposure reduction (i.e., through provision of personal protective equipment and WASH facilities
and practices); - Vulnerability reduction (i.e., through provision of food, water, housing and mental health support);
- Building capacity to anticipate future risk (i.e., through ongoing assessment of local government
readiness and business continuity planning).
Insight #4: Systemic risks and development deficiencies require systemic solutions
Risk-informed development is a cornerstone of achieving the SDGs. The challenges highlighted above are symptoms of siloed approaches to development. Therefore, it is not by coincidence that many of the recommendations made by SEM survey respondents also converged on the need for systems approaches, including calls for improved policy coherence, strengthening of critical systems, and all-of-society engagement and collaboration approaches. The desk review of other surveys echoes these recommendations, as evidenced by calls for a One Health approach for the prevention of zoonotic diseases, use of multi-hazard approaches for DRR and strengthening of key systems. The main message being that for organizations to be resilient and to promote resilience in communities to systemic risks, a systems approach is necessary. A systems approach for DRR would necessarily begin with a focus on all facets of risk reduction, including preventing hazards, reducing exposure and vulnerability, and building adaptive capacity.
Systemic risk requires systemic solutions. National governments and the UN system should lead the way in pandemic and multi-hazard prevention and preparedness in this new era of pandemics, with SEM members and stakeholder organizations advocating actively for such leadership and participating in the co-creation of systemic solutions.
Top recommendations for integrating risk-informed development approach to increase resilience and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
Drawing from the Sendai Stakeholders’ lessons learnt and the best practices in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, five key recommendations emerge to improve multi-hazard resilience in the context of all stakeholder driven efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2030.
Giving power to local actors through flexible support.
While the pandemics are seen as global, risks remain local. Pandemics and other hazards unfold in locally specific contexts of poverty, weak infrastructure, and limited access to health & response services. In order to effectively factor in the various local risks, it is important to empower, capacitate and include local actors, especially the community based organizations in development and implementation of local as well as national DRR strategies. Moreover, flexible financing and resourcing mechanisms should be made available to the community based organizations to enable them direct the resources to shifting needs in relation to emerging new risks.
Empowering women and girls for DRR.
Risk and vulnerabilities to disasters carry a gender-lens as illustrated by resurgence in gender-based violence during the pandemic imposed lock-downs and the increased strain on women’s care-giving capacities in light of limited government’s efficacy to address exacerbated needs. It is crucial to work with women and girls in the design of prevention and response systems to pandemics and other hazards alike to facilitate strengthening of violence response and prevention. Moreover, as the primary social care agents in their communities, women are the knowledge bearers on leaving no one behind in the disaster risk response planning, therefore, they should be partnered with in devising and delivery of social support systems. This is not to say that women and girls engagement should be limited to the two areas but to recognize the essential need for their contributions especially as pertaining to social care and to violence prevention.
Strengthening key systems through all of society approach
In the context of DRR, siloed approach or sectorial response fails to achieve long term resilience. It is essential to promote a systemic and cross-sectorial approach to address multi-faceted hazard risks. Successful preparedness & response calls for collaboration of all DRR stakeholders and governments to ensure that health systems are well capacitated and accessible to all; science, research and education sectors deliver reliable data to individuals and governments alike to empower them in response; communications and public information sector is transparent and reliable to counter disinformation and build relations among all stakeholders; while social infrastructure is functional to deliver social support
to those affected. To achieve this, all stakeholders must be empowered in DRR governance, where decisions and plans are made collaboratively through partnership-based approach, building on practice based knowledge and expertise pertaining to risks and vulnerabilities, as well as unique stakeholder’s capacities to successfully deliver.
Promoting a multi-hazard approach to risk management
Risk management should be enhanced through policies and interventions focused on systemic resilience, including equitable investments in health and in physical and social infrastructure resilience. The 2020 UNDRR’s Status Report on Sendai Target E highlighted the urgency to accelerate efforts to develop multi-hazard national and local DRR strategies that integrate biological hazards, including the benefit from a multi-stakeholder and inter-sectoral approach to DRR governance arrangements. Importantly, it was observed that lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that countries that had in place multi-hazard disaster risk management strategies, including health emergencies, “found themselves better prepared to respond to COVID-19.”
Reduce inequality for increased resilience
The ongoing pandemic again brought to light how underlying socio-economic inequalities can aggravate negative impacts of hazards and disasters. To ensure structural resilience building, it remains crucial to reduce socio-economic inequalities prevalent in our societies. Implementing universal healthcare coverage would be one of the ways to alleviate the impact of structural inequality in the context of DRR, as well as ensuring food and livelihood security, and access to other basic services.
