Report on – 33rd IC Resolution 7: Disaster laws and policies that leave no one behind (33IC/19/R7) – U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office

¿ Ha incorporado el Estado/la Sociedad Nacional/la institución los empeños contenidos en esta resolución en los planes estratégicos u operativos pertinentes?

Los compromisos han sido incorporados en
estrategia
política

A internacional, nacional nivel

Explicación:

The UK White paper on International Development

Published in November 2023, the UK’s White Paper on International Development emphasises building resilience in vulnerable regions, integrating inclusive disaster risk reduction strategies and addressing climate change impacts. It advocates for international cooperation, local capacity building, and efficient resource allocation to ensure that disaster preparedness and response efforts leave no one behind.

UK support for the COP28 Declaration

The UK has committed to supporting the COP28 Presidency’s Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery, and Peace, which focuses on increasing climate adaptation efforts and access to finance for communities and countries threatened or affected by fragility or conflict, or facing high humanitarian needs and insecurity.

As part of its support for the Presidency, the UK Government has made a contribution to the Declaration’s Package of Solutions. Its commitments include:

Scoping a Resilience and Adaptation Fund equivalent to 15% of humanitarian spend to build resilience in areas highly vulnerable to climate and with high humanitarian need.

Launching a new UK-backed Centre for Access to Climate Finance.

Implementing guidance on Climate Resilient Development, which highlights the need for collaboration between peacebuilders, development actors and humanitarian responses to effectively preserve and build climate resilience.

Participation in UN Sixth Committee Working Group discussions

In the spirit of this Resolution, in October 2023 the UK was an active participant at the UN Sixth Committee Working Group on the Protection of persons in the event of disasters.  

This was a helpful starting point for a discussion on whether and how an international convention can reduce the devastating harm caused by disasters. The UK was open to exploring the benefits of such a convention and shares the ambition to improve disaster preparedness and risk reduction measures, improve cooperation and coordination, and better. We are engaging with interest in the Sixth Commitee Working Group sessions in 2024, to enable us to assess whether a convention has the potential to reduce the risk of, and improve the response to, disasters.

Support for Small Island Developing States

The UK recognises that all States are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and that Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries are some of the most vulnerable. The UK is especially proud of its work with SIDS and Least Developed Countries, particularly in its capacity as COP26 Presidency.

In this regard, the UK set up a Climate & Development Ministerial to focus on priorities of climate vulnerable states. We co-lead with Fiji the Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance to improve access to climate finance for SIDS and climate vulnerable States. We have created programmes such as the SIDS Capacity and Resilience Programme and the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States facility. In addition, the UK was instrumental in securing agreements and funding to set up and develop the Santiago Network, to provide technical assistance for the implementation of approaches for averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage.

The UK is committed to improving access to finance for climate vulnerable and developing countries and as part of this the UK and Fiji are leading the Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance. We are working to embed the principles and recommendations of the Taskforce, launched at COP26, which apply to all providers and recipients of climate finance and are trialing the new approach in six countries (Bangladesh, Fiji, Jamaica, Rwanda, Uganda and Mauritius).

Ha trabajado el Estado/la Sociedad Nacional/la institución con otros asociados para poner en práctica los empeños contenidos en esta resolución?

En asociación con:
Sociedad Nacional de la Cruz Roja o de la Media Luna Roja de su país
CICR/Federación Internacional
asociados en los ámbitos humanitario y de desarrollo (por ejemplo, Naciones Unidas, organizaciones no gubernamentales)
otros asociados

Ejemplos de cooperación:

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) allocates funding annually to support the Red Cross Movement’s global humanitarian efforts. This includes over £60 million of predictable unearmarked core funding each year to aid the Red Cross Movement’s operations worldwide, enhancing the health and safety of volunteers and staff in various crises, such as epidemics and disasters.

Specifically, the FCDO provides £2 million annually to the British Red Cross for its international projects. Additionally, the FCDO allocates £2.7 million per year to the IFRC Disaster Response Emergency Fund, a portion of which is dedicated to early action initiatives in anticipation of potential disasters.

United Nations

UNGA Sixth Committee: The UK is following the progression of the draft articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters at UNGA Sixth Committee.

NGOs

The UK is committed to embedding and scaling up early and anticipatory action in UK programmes in Fragile and Conflict Affected States, to mitigate impacts of humanitarian shocks, including those caused by climate change. The UK established the START Network, which aims to provide anticipatory grants to frontline NGOs.

The UK supports the Centre for Disaster Protection to look at innovative financing including Disaster Risk Financing for anticipatory action, in addition to the Risk-informed Early Action Partnership.

The UK commissioned the Overseas Development Institute to develop a guidance note which outlines the unique challenges to building climate resilience in fragile and conflict affected settings. The note sets out a pathway for multilateral development systems to build resilience to climate impacts, in which humanitarian aid, development, peacebuilding, disaster risk management, and climate change actors work together to promote peace, stability and systemic resilience in the long term, while continuing to meet immediate needs in the short term. The practical applications of the lessons from this guidance note will be the subject of several discussions in the coming year with stakeholders in humanitarian contexts.

The United Kingdom takes an evidence based, demand-driven and inclusive approach to adaptation and resilience. We do this by supporting vulnerable countries to assess their climate and nature risks, developing, and implementing effective National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and policies, and strengthening disaster risk management systems through political and financial support to technical and coordination bodies such as NAP-Global Network, the Climate Change Committee and the Risk Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP). REAP in particular (an advocacy and coordination mechanism funded by the UK Government since 2019), aims to integrate and expand a systemic shift towards acting earlier to reduce the impacts of disasters, bringing together relevant actors from the development, humanitarian and climate communities around the early warning/early action agenda. It currently has an 80+ strong partnership consisting of States, regional organisations and national societies and is hosted by the IFRC.

Least Developed Countries Initiative for Effective Adaptation and Resilience (LIFE-AR) programme: The UK funds the LIFE-AR programme, which is committed to transforming the access, management and targeting of climate finance with an objective that at least 70% of climate finance reaches local level by 2030.

CLARE: The UK is supporting the £110m, UK-Canada Climate Adaptation and Resilience initiative (CLARE), which aims to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards for at least 5m people across the Global South.

Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) and UNSG’s Early Warning for All initiatives: The UK took over as Chair of CREWS and has provided financial support of £9.3m to the initiative. CREWS is an international mechanism that collaborates directly with Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to fund projects aimed at enhancing the availability and accessibility of EWS.

Local partnerships

The UK has reiterated its commitment to equitable partnerships and a locally led approach to development, climate, and humanitarian assistance as part of the International Development White Paper. Importantly, the White Paper announced that we will publish a strategy setting out how the UK will support local leadership on development, climate, nature, and humanitarian action. We are currently at the early planning stages, but the strategy will explore where we want to get to, and how our engagement, terminology, delivery, and approach to risk can change to support local partnerships. We are planning on broad and deep stakeholder engagement with both international and local partners over the coming months, as well as working on an understanding of localisation under the Grand Bargain and the principles for Locally-Led Adaptation.

¿Ha habido dificultades para poner en práctica los empeños contenidos en esta resolución?

Dificultades en relación con:
conflicto de prioridades
otros asociados

Describa detalladamente estas dificultades:

Diverse Stakeholders: Effective disaster policies require input from various stakeholders, including government agencies, NGOs, community organisations and the private sector from a range of areas including climate, humanitarian, development and research. Although there are shared goals, each also has different priorities and perspectives, making coordination complex.

Gap in expertise between policy advisers and international law specialists: Many policy advisers may not be well-versed in international legal frameworks, treaties, and conventions that influence disaster management and humanitarian response. Conversely, experts in international law may lack in-depth understanding of local contexts including cultural nuances, existing legal frameworks, and specific community needs. This disconnect can lead to recommendations that are impractical or less effective when implemented at the local level.

¿Han incidido los empeños contenidos en esta resolución en el trabajo y la dirección del Estado/la Sociedad Nacional/la institución?

Tipo de repercusión:
fortalecimiento de la cooperación entre el gobierno o las autoridades públicas y la Sociedad Nacional
desarrollo y uso de herramientas o metodologías innovadoras
establecimiento o fortalecimiento de asociaciones con otros actores humanitarios
incremento en la movilización de recursos

Describa detalladamente las repercusiones:

Strengthened Cooperation: There has been enhanced cooperation between government/public authorities and national societies, exemplified by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funding of the British Red Cross and other Red Cross Movement operations globally.

Development and Utilisation of Innovative Tools/Methodologies: The UK has developed and used innovative tools and methodologies, such as the guidance on Climate Resilient Development and the anticipatory grants provided through the START Network.

Enhanced Partnerships: Partnerships with other humanitarian actors have been created or enhanced, including cooperation with the IFRC, and various NGOs. For instance, the UK funds the LIFE-AR programme and supports the Risk Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP).

Increased Mobilisation of Resources: There has been an increase in the mobilisation of resources, demonstrated by the UK Government’s commitment to the CLARE initiative and the CREWS, providing financial support and enhancing early warning systems and climate resilience.

5. Han incidido los empeños contenidos en esta resolución en las comunidades a las que el Estado/la Sociedad Nacional/la institución presta servicios?

Describa las repercusiones:

Support for Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crises (SPARC) research in fragile and conflict-affected states.

Throughout 2023, SPARC has been working with the UK Government to identify how to scale up climate finance and action in several countries which are fragile and affected by conflict, including Chad and Somalia. The research from SPARC, which includes an understanding of climate finance flows to countries, has formed the foundation of a new allocation of £100 million in finance to Somalia from the Green Climate Fund.

CREWS

As a result of CREWS support, in 2023:

396 million people in 45 countries have improved access to forecasts and early warning services, developed or improved with CREWS support since 2017;

125 million people have access to new or improved forecasting/warning services in 19 different countries in Africa, Asia Pacific and the Caribbean.

19 forecasting /warning products have been developed or adapted to better protect 105.7 million people in 11 countries, from at least 8 hazards; and

3 additional countries now have flash flood guidance in place, enabling a more timely and accurate prediction and warning for 73.7 million people from a deadly sudden onset hazard in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER) programme: The UK’s flagship Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER) programme works to build resilience by strengthening access to weather and climate information services, working across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. This supports decision making at the local, national and regional level, and enables communities and governments to better anticipate and prepare for climate shocks and stresses, reducing their impact.

Achievements of previous phases of WISER in East Africa include:

6000+ people have been trained, improving their knowledge and skills to produce, access and use co-produced weather and climate information services.

Millions of households across Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda now have improved access to weather and climate information services.

The work has strengthened community resilience, such as in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, where WISER works with communities in informal settlements to ensure they receive and use extreme rainfall warnings, giving them time to clear drains to stop them overflowing and prevent their homes flooding. This work is now being expanded to Addis Ababa and Kampala.

Enabling enhanced information for over 3.3 million households and delivering in excess of £200 million of socio-economic benefits.

Delivering early warning services such as improved weather forecasts for Lake Victoria, which by 2021 had led to a 30% decrease in severe weather-related deaths and generated $44 million in economic benefits for Lake Victoria fishing communities.