Opening in Davos today, the conference aims at formulating practical ideas for action, resulting in a compendium of '100 ideas for action' to help with the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action.
Background
IDRC Davos 2008 will attempt to find answers and offer solutions to today’s challenges in managing risk and reducing disasters. The approach must be that of integrated risk management – across subject areas, professions and sectors – encompassing natural and social sciences, engineering, and scientific understanding with business, policy responses, and citizen participation. Stronger ties with adequate public-private partnership models have to be built among risk management communities and sectors, and approaches should be devised to move towards a more truly integrated way of thinking about disasters and risks.
How do we move to a safer world and how can our current know-how support this change process? For its August 2008 gathering in Davos, the International Disaster and Risk Conference will focus on crucial issues in four key areas of risk management, related to disaster and risk reduction, both substantive and functional, as well as on an in-depth review of one of this year's most significant disaster, the Wenchuan earthquake, that will help draw lessons for the future:
- Climate change adaptation and disaster and risk reduction
- Critical infrastructures: hospitals, schools, water supply, food supplies, energy, ICT, transport (airports, shipping, road and rail traffic), etc.
- Pandemics and diseases
- Integral risk management: natural hazards, technological risks, biological risks, terrorism
- The Wenchuan earthquake in China of 12 May 2008. Discussions on that specific event will draw lessons for the future.
Open to government officials, experts and practitioners, representatives from IGOs, NGOs, the private sector, scientific and academic institutions, the media, and other personalities, the conference will be the opportunity for participants to engage in discussions through a multitude of fora addressing subjects in those and related areas: in plenary and parallel sessions, workshops and seminars as well as through social encounters organized before, during, and after the 5-day event.
Expected Outcome
Unlike the previous IDRC conference in 2006 that was concluded with the adoption of a declaration, IDRC Davos 2008 aims at formulating practical ideas for action in the five focus areas. The conference will thus result in a compendium of “100 Ideas for Action” to help with the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (‘Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters, 2005-2015’). This catalogue of ideas will be finalized as the outcome of the conference. It will be destined to serve at least three target audiences:
- The participants of IDRC Davos 2008, whether organizations, institutions or individual experts, who may wish to take some of those ideas for direct implementation in their usual professional environment;
- The Global Risk Forum GRF Davos that will use this catalogue of ideas for its own purposes in developing its future programmes (Risk Academy; Platform for Networks; IDRC Conferences and Workshops), and as a starting point for future discussions, including IDRC 2009; and
- The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP/DRR) for it to consider at its next meeting in 2009.
In essence, the outcome of the conference will be a contribution from experts, practitioners, and civil society, in a broad configuration, to the wide disaster and risk reduction community with all its institutional and professional components.
The Platform for Networks of the GRF Davos will be the depository for the “100 Ideas for Action”. After the conference, participants and individuals who have registered with the Platform will have the possibility to add ideas to the “Ideas for Action” section of the Platform.
How to get 100 Ideas for Action
IDRC Davos 2008 will provide a number of different possibilities to initiate and record valuable ideas. The following tools and processes will be established:
1. Plenary Panel Discussion Sessions: A series of plenary sessions will take place with moderated discussions between high-level personalities with a specific interest and experience in the concerned areas. The facilitators will encourage panellists to engage in “out of the box thinking”, to find direct and practical approaches or solutions to problems in the areas under discussion, to improve cooperation between the various actors, to increase effectiveness or to bridge existing and potential gaps, with special reference to those between science and application, and to offer attractive opportunities for public-private partnerships. The sessions will conclude with facilitators asking each panellist to formulate the main thought
which they have drawn from the discussion; the panellists will also be asked to provide one idea (in writing and/ or as a 1 minutes video statement) to be considered for inclusion in the compendium of “100 Ideas for Action”. Such ideas may be inspired by interventions that will also be solicited from the audience.
2. Ideas from the Parallel Sessions: The convener of each parallel session who chairs the session and summarizes its outcomes will also be asked to provide (in writing) one idea to be considered for inclusion in the compendium of “100 Ideas for Action”. Such ideas may be inspired by interventions that will also be solicited from the audience.
3. Ideas from Associated Conferences, Workshops and Seminars: The convener of each workshop or seminar who chairs the session and summarizes its outcomes will also be asked to provide (in writing) ideas to be considered for inclusion in the compendium of “100 Ideas for Action”. Such ideas may be inspired by interventions that will also be solicited from the audience.
4. Other ideas from the participants:
a. “100 Ideas for Action” boxes: All participants will have the opportunity to write down their own ideas on a “100 Ideas for Action” sheet (forms will be available in all meeting rooms), either during plenary or parallel sessions, or at any other time of their stay in Davos. The sheets can be dropped in at the specific “100 Ideas for Action” box at the GRF Davos booth.
b. Computer based idea collection: At the GRF Davos booth, a computer will be reserved for participants who would like to formulate an idea for consideration by the IDRC, and can do so at any time during the conference. Instructions will be available on site.
c. Red chair interviews: Participants, who would like to express their ideas and views verbally, will have the opportunity to do it with a short video statement (1 minute). The statement will simultaneously be displayed on a screen for a broader audience.
Evaluation Process
The collection of ideas from the diverse IDRC fora (plenary and other) will inevitably yield a great variety and number of proposals. A committee will be set up to review and select those ideas that prove to be most innovative and realistic, while maintaining a geographical and functional diversity, within a manageable number. This review group will meet every day to screen proposals originating from the various sessions, with the aim to present the compendium of “100 Ideas for Action” at the closing of the conference – notwithstanding other ideas that will stem from the discussions during the last day session on the Wenchuan earthquake, that will be later incorporated in the special section dedicated to “Ideas for Action” in the Platform for Networks.
The group will be representative of the composition of the conference, geographically, substantively, and functionally. It will meet on a daily basis and aim at presenting a catalogue of ideas by the end of the conference. The group could continue operating after the conference, in support of the GRF, and the Platform of Networks.