THE MDTF AS A STRATEGIC FINANCING INSTRUMENT

GFDRR has effectively utilized the MDTF as a strategic tool to explore new initiatives and promote global dialogue and knowledge exchanges while maintaining its support for county programs. In the first five years of the MDTF, support for global dialogue and the development of knowledge products and tools averaged 18 percent of MDTF financing. Over the last five years, this average increased to 33 percent of MDTF financing. Over the same period of time, financing for country programs through the MDTF remained relatively stable.

GFDRR has supported an increasingly diverse number of projects for the past ten years, which has been critical to meeting its strategic agenda. Through these projects, GFDRR has been able to facilitate knowledge exchanges by organizing and hosting events such as Understanding Risk and the World Reconstruction Conference (WRC); promote the disaster risk management agenda at the international level by supporting events such as the Resilience Dialogue Series, the Asian Ministerial Conference on DRR, and the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in Sendai, and exploring new initiatives such as strengthened civil society partnerships, the Global Program for Safe Schools, the Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI), and the Building Regulations for Resilience Program.

THE CONSULTATIVE GROUP

The Consultative Group (CG) is GFDRR’s primary decision-making and advisory body. It is composed of Members and Observers.

GFDRR’s members include countries, intergovernmental organizations, international financial institutions, and UN agencies that commit to contributing at least $3 million or an equivalent amount over a three-year period to the MDTF. To encourage the participation of developing countries as Members, the threshold for contribution is much lower, equivalent to $500,000 over a three-year period. Similarly, developing countries that receive GFDRR support can be invited to serve as non-contributing members, when invited by the CG for a one-year renewable term.

GFDRR’s Observers include prospective Members for the CG as well as intergovernmental organizations, international financial institutions, and UN agencies whose activities complement GFDRR’s mission. Additionally, developing countries, civil society organizations, private sector organizations and foundations are also invited as observers as agreed by the CG.

The CG meets twice a year to ensure coherence in discussion regarding current and future directions of the Facility’s work program. The meetings are often accompanied by a Knowledge Partnership Day, which provides a platform for GFDRR’s extensive network of partners to showcase their work and draw on synergies with the engagements of different players in the DRM community. Each year, a co-chair is selected by consensus among Members for a one-year term. In FY16, Germany served as the co-chair of the CG and Switzerland was appointed to succeed Germany for a one- year term in FY17.

GFDRR’S PARTNERSHIP WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION

The EU is a key partner to GFDRR as well as its single largest donor. The largest part of this collaboration focuses on improving climate and disaster resilience through various programs in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP). Collaboration with the EU has expanded since 2014, with new programs launched to support DRM activities in South Asia and Serbia, as well as support for thematic initiatives such as disaster risk financing.

Alongside GFDRR and other key partners, the EU has also played an active role in supporting the partnership of GFDRR, the World Bank, the EU, USAID and Japan, which has focused on local action to address fragility and disaster resilience. The EU and GFDRR jointly push for effective integration of DRM into the global development agenda and links among DRM, poverty reduction, and climate change adaptation.

The tripartite agreement, which is a joint declaration by the EU, the UN, and the World Bank, on Post-Crisis Assessments and Recovery Planning, aims to mobilize partners and their resources to harmonize and better coordinate post-crisis frameworks. GFDRR plays a key role on coordinating action across the three actors, as well as with other international and domestic actors. These institutions have collaborated on more than 40 post-disaster assessments since 2008, and more recently, jointly issued a PDNA Guide and a Recovery Framework in 2015 at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

Building Disaster Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa

Building Disaster Resilience to Natural Hazards in Sub-Saharan African Regions, Countries and Communities was launched at the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa in July 2015. The overall objective of this initiative is to strengthen the resilience of sub-Saharan African regions. To achieve this objective, five Result Areas were identified and are being implemented by several partners, including the African Development Bank (AfDB), African Union Commission (AUC), United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the World Bank. GFDRR helped coordinate the World Bank’s engagement in two of the result areas—Result 2 ($24 million) and Result 5 ($24 million).

The African Regional Economic Communities Program (RECs) (Result 2) contributes to developing the coordination capacity of RECs by enhancing their coordination, planning, and policy advisory capacities. Participating RECs include the Economic Community for Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

As of FY16, activities implemented focused on policy dialogue, flood management, risk management, preparedness, and capacity building:

• ECCAS established a new DRR unit and launched the Central Africa Parliamentarians Network for Natural Disasters Resilience
• The ECOWAS DRR Plan of Action 2015-2030 in line with Sendai framework was drafted.
• IGAD signed the grant agreement for the IGAD - Building Disaster Resilience through Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation Project.
• SADC formulated a comprehensive work program for 2016 and 2017.

The Africa Disaster Risk Financing (ADRF) initiative (Result 5), structured along three components, aims to support the development of multi-risk financing strategies at regional, national, and local levels to help countries make informed decisions. In FY16, about 800 people were trained on DRM and a number of outputs were delivered: five risk profiles, two studies, four diagnostic reports, and one conference.

• Component 1: Creating the enabling data environment for risk financing. Multi-hazard risk profiles were developed for Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Senegal, and Uganda.
• Component 2: Supporting countries in developing risk financing strategies. Engagement began with 11 countries on identifying countries’ need and priorities in risk financing.
• Component 3: Facilitating regional risk financing and knowledge sharing initiatives. The UR&F Conference attracted 450 participants and a wide range of African partners including AfDB, Addis Ababa University, African Risk Capacity (ARC) and others.

GFDRR’S PARTNERSHIP WITH JAPAN

Japan has been a member of GFDRR and a strong partner of the Facility since its inception in 2007. The partnership between GFDRR and Japan expanded after the devastating 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. As a result, in 2014, Japan launched the Japan-World Bank Program for Mainstreaming DRM in Developing Countries.

The program has facilitated a number of partnerships with Japanese counterparts from government. This includes the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), MoF, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, and the Ministry of Education, academia and research institutes, and the private sector through platforms like the Japan Bosai Platform.

Through the Japan Program, in FY16, GFDRR has fostered collaboration with JICA on the ground. This includes operational coordination and financing for resilience investments in Bangladesh and Nepal; training for better hydromet services in the Pacific and coordinating dialogue on risk-reduction and risk-financing investments in the Philippines.

SHARING JAPANESE EXPERTISE WITH PARTNERS

One important aspect of the partnership with Japan is to provide developing country DRM practitioners with a better understanding of how to integrate and apply DRM lessons and approaches in domestic policies and contexts. In FY16, the DRM Hub, Tokyo developed and organized Technical Deep Dives (TDD) in partnership with the World Bank’s Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC). Intensive multi-day knowledge exchanges, TDDs are designed to bring public officials and teams from developing countries to Japan to share relevant experience and solutions applicable to project design and implementation.

The first TDD was held in April 2016 and focused on integrated urban flood risk management. This TDD provided partners from Argentina, Ghana, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Madagascar, Nigeria, Solomon Islands, and Vietnam first-hand knowledge on this topic, and also engaged Government of Japan counterparts and the World Bank’s Urban Floods Community of Practice.

Participants strengthened their knowledge of the challenges faced within their home countries and learned from the experiences of others, including Japan. They gained practical lessons on topics including the importance of institutional and legal reforms, stakeholder coordination, integration of structural and non-structural measures, and risk-informed land-use planning.

TDDs have proved to be an important way to connect the ongoing operational needs of countries with experts. Following their participation in the April TDD, government officials and teams working in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam requested support to enhance the quality of a planned flood control center as part of a larger-scale investment in flood risk management. GFDRR and TDLC worked together to connect them with experts from MLIT, JICA, the University of Tokyo, and Tokyo University. They also brought officials from the City of Yokohama, Japan, which faces tremendous river and flood hazards, to inform a workshop on next steps for the project in Ho Chi Minh.