Acting Today for Tomorrow : A Policy and Practice Note for Climate- and Disaster-Resilient Development in the Pacific Islands Region, with Supporting Research, Analysis, and Case Studies
Pacific island countries continue to be among the most vulnerable in the world: they combine high exposure to frequent and damaging natural hazards with low capacity to manage the resulting risks. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by poorly planne...
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| Format: | Policy Note |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/351471468098049265/Acting-today-for-tomorrow-a-policy-and-practice-note-for-climate-and-disaster-resilient-development-in-the-pacific-islands-region-with-supporting-research-analysis-and-case-studies http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26776 |
| Summary: | Pacific island countries continue to be
among the most vulnerable in the world: they combine high
exposure to frequent and damaging natural hazards with low
capacity to manage the resulting risks. Their vulnerability
is exacerbated by poorly planned socioeconomic development,
which has increased exposure and disaster losses, and by
climate change, which has increased the magnitude of
cyclones, droughts, and flooding. Currently, inefficient
management of risks negates development gains and incurs
large costs for national and local governments. Progress in
reducing vulnerability has been retarded in part because of
fundamental problems with coordination and cooperation among
relevant actors at all levels. 'acting today for
tomorrow' provides case studies, data, and analysis
from the Pacific region to make a case for climate-and
disaster-resilient development as being the most appropriate
way to address the above challenges. It outlines what the
consequences are of not acting today to reduce risk, what
important lessons have emerged from the last decade, and
what must be done to move toward resilient development in
Pacific island countries. The document is intended for an
audience of practitioners and policymakers at all levels
across all relevant sectors. Its analysis and
recommendations are meant to inform disaster risk reduction
(DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) planning across a
range of institutions. Over the last decade, some important
lessons have emerged about what works, and what does not
work, to reduce vulnerability. It is clear now that
project-based DRR and CCA initiatives with relatively short
time frames encourage fragmented efforts, inhibit carryover
across initiatives, and ultimately do little to reduce
underlying vulnerability in a lasting way. To achieve robust
and effective political authority, leadership, and
accountability for more resilient development, governments
should anchor coordination of DRR and CCA in a high level
central ministry/body both at national and regional levels
and ensure that leaders are knowledgeable about disaster and
climate risk management. |
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