World Reconstruction Conference 3

Despite ongoing and expanding efforts to minimize hazard impacts through disaster risk reduction, the recovery function following disasters is increasingly recognized as a relevant and necessary area of focus. As climate change, urbanization and migration accelerate, the need for resilient recovery is expected to continue on an upward trajectory. For instance, from 2012 to 2014, 994 disasters impacted more than 326 million people across the globe.¹ Costs of physical damage caused by these events are also rising -- from an estimated US$20 billion on average per year in the 1990s to about US$100 billion per year in the first decade of this century.²

The 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction includes as Priority 4 a focus on “build back better in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction,”³ which reflects the strong advocacy efforts undertaken by the World Bank Group (WBG), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), European Union (EU) and other partners. Build Back Better (BBB) provides an important premise for engagement of all national governments, UN system and multilateral agencies to implement recovery in a transformative manner that reduces risks and builds resilience in an increasingly complex world of multiple and colliding risks.

With this in mind, the third edition of the World Reconstruction Conference (WRC3) aims to promote resilience through post-crisis recovery, as evidenced by the Sendai Framework’s Priority 4. Co-organized by the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, the conference builds on the success of the first two WRCs held in 2011 in Geneva and 2014 in Washington. WRC3 is held in conjunction with European Development Days 2017.

Participants: Over 500 experts and practitioners from governments, international organizations, NGOs, academia, and the private sector are expected to share their best practices and lessons on recovery and explore the nexus between resilient recovery efforts and sustainable poverty reduction.

Thematic Areas: Recovery interventions; Recovery in conflict and fragile situations; Recovery preparedness; Leveraging political consensus on Sendai Priority 4.

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¹ Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). 2014. Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2013: The numbers and trends. Institute of Health and Society (IRSS) Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels, Belgium.

² Natural Disasters: Mitigating Impact, Managing Risks, IMF (2012).

³ Build Back Better: The use of the recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction phases after a disaster to increase the resilience of nations and communities through integrating disaster risk reduction measures into the restoration of physical infrastructure and societal systems, and into the revitalisation of livelihoods, economies, and the environment.