Understanding Risk Forum 2014: Disaster Risk Assessment Capacity Building and Community Building

Context and Objectives

The development objective of this training was to:

• Build technical capacity in risk assessment in the Caribbean and Pacific region, through a series of training events in the latest emerging tools and methodology;
• Build a community that can grow and promote the further exchange of knowledge.

Main Activities and results

The Understanding Risk (UR) 2014 was a five-day event from June 30 to July 4 2014 that offered technical conference sessions, training workshops, and a series of side events led by a diverse range of communities of practice. The Forum covered topics ranging from risk modelling to climate change and community based risk assessment and open data.

Over a period of five days in London, UR2014 convened 840 participants from more than 60 countries, representing 285 institutions that covered government agencies, the private sector, NGOs, research institutions, academia and civil society. The Forum was organized in partnership with Willis, University College London, and the World Bank, with financial support from the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) – European Union Disaster Risk Reduction Program, Esri, RMS and Google.

Partnerships and Coordination

The project was implemented through a close coordination between the Understanding Risk Planning team, the World Bank regional DRM teams, the GFDRR Brussels team and the EU (both relevant delegations and headquarters) involved in the event.