CALL FOR PAPERS for the2ndNational Conference on Disaster Risk Management in Ethiopia
The meeting is expected to be held on October 13th 2011.
Introduction to the conference
Under the theme “Building Disaster & Climate Change Resilient Communities in Ethiopia”, the second national conference will represent the culmination of the Ethiopian National Week of Disaster Risk Reduction. The outcomes, discussion and findings of this Conference will contribute to the effective implementation of Disaster Risk Management in the country and will demonstrate the complementarities between CCA and DRM and the contribution which DRM practitioners can make to supporting Ethiopia to adapt to the changing climate. It is also hoped that this conference will also provide an opportunity for experts, policy makers and practitioners from both the DRM and CCA fields to come together and identify how best to pool resources and coordinate their work.
The conference is being organised by the Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector within the Ministry of Agriculture, but with support from UN Agencies, Universities and international NGOs, such as Oxfam Canada, the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance, World Vision International and others.
Why do we need this conference?
Vulnerable farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia are already hit hard by climate hazards, losing harvests and livestock to drought, watching floods destroy vital infrastructure, and struggling to grow staple crops in changing rainfall patterns. There are significant human and economic costs to these disasters and clear evidence that investing in DRM can have significant cost-benefit returns. The Ethiopian government has already signalled its interest in moving towards a Disaster Risk Management approach to disasters which seeks to prevent and mitigate disasters. Ethiopia is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. Analysis of meteorological data shows that Ethiopia’s climate is already changing and that without adaptation, these changes could have potentially devastating impacts on food security and on economic growth.
The Ethiopian Government has already made significant efforts to tackle both disasters and climate change, with the Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector developing a comprehensive framework and strategic investment plan which will enable the Government to operationalize the paradigm shift to Disaster Risk Management. At the same time, the Environmental Protection Authority is leading efforts to create a Climate Resilient Green Economy within Ethiopia. Climate resilience, by its very nature, includes resilience to climate-related hazards and the disasters they create. Therefore, the DRM sector has a vital role to play in ensuring that Climate Change Adaptation plans can be achieved. However, practitioners and policy makers working on climate change and disaster risk management come from different backgrounds and have not yet identified appropriate measures to ensure complementarity of objectives and coordination of efforts. This conference is one effort to support this process.
This conference is also part of the annual celebrations of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. It will create awareness and bring together researchers and practitioners to discuss and disseminate information about Disaster Risk Management and to raise awareness to the wider Ethiopian society on these vital issues for the national development.
What are the conference themes?
Keynote Theme: Building disaster and climate change resilient communities
Following the key note address which outlines overlap and divergence between the two disciplines and shares the vision of the Ethiopian Government in these two critical areas, there will be two papers demonstrating concrete efforts to coordinate and integrate DRM and CCA. Therefore, abstract submissions on activities which demonstrate convergence and joint-work will be requested. For example,
- Tangible evidence of interventions which have built disaster and climate change resilient communities and lessons learned
- Activities which bring together hazard and climate change trend analysis to guide efforts to tackle vulnerability to climate change and disasters.
- Coordination mechanisms which have successfully brought together DRR and CCA practitioners and policy makers to facilitate joint work and avoid duplication.
- Experiences which show how DRM efforts can flexibly reallocate funding between efforts to prepare for, respond to and recover from shocks as well as building capacity to adapt to long-term trends in climate.
Sub-theme 1: Community involvement and management of DRM and CCA
A wealth of indigenous DRM knowledge and practices are found in Ethiopia. The potential for community based, managed and initiated risk reduction is often overlooked. However, experience and evidence from both within and outside Ethiopia suggest that various forms of community involvement are often a crucial part of successful DRR and DRM programs, global thinking has also promoted community-based approaches to climate change adaptation and the EPA has also included a commitment to the production of community-level adaptation plans in the draft Ethiopia Adaptation Plan. Papers should therefore focus on:
- Examples of successful community managed initiatives, which clearly identify the key steps and strategies that are needed for ensuring community engagement and/or leadership in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation.
- Examples of development interventions that build on indigenous adaptation and DRM strategies
Sub-theme 2: Public awareness for DRM and CCA
Reducing disaster risk and adapting to climate change are challenges which every citizen of Ethiopia will face. However, the type of information and awareness creating activities which are needed will vary depending on the actions which the public are expected to take. Papers which explore these issues are requested, focussing on:
- Analysis of information and awareness needs of vulnerable communities
- Practical experiences of implementing awareness campaigns with a tangible impact on communites’ disaster risk or adaptive capacity.
Sub-theme 3: Building capacity for DRM and CCA
Key constraints to the scaling up of DRM and CCA efforts are capacity constraints at community, wereda and national level, but numerous stakeholders are currently assessing how they can best assess and build this capacity. Therefore papers are required, which:
- Analyse the required capacity at different levels for adaptation and risk reduction
- Describe successful approaches to building capacity for DRM or CCA.
Sub-theme 4: Early warning and climate information for DRM and CCA
Using information effectively is central to both managing disaster risks and adapting to climate change. Therefore papers are required which highlight:
- Appropriate mechanisms for using early warning for decision making which leads to early action
- Lessons learned from initiatives which use climate information, including both short-term and seasonal forecasts as well as long-term projections
Sub-theme 5: Financing for DRM and CCA
The paradigm shift to DRM and the growing demands of the changing climate also require new approaches to financing. Key challenges include effectively aligning development finance to resilience building as well as ensuring that appropriate finance is readily available to support response to and recovery from shocks. Therefore papers are required which can demonstrate:
- Effective approaches for ensuring development finance can support resilience building
- Innovative risk financing approaches and lessons learned for scaling up
Sub-theme 6: Gender and DRM / CCA
Women and men are differently affected by disasters and climate changes and have different roles to play in risk management and adaptation. In particular papers should therefore focus on:
- Practical examples of gender analysis applied to the understanding of disaster risks or climate trends and used to inform action.
- Lessons learned from initiatives which have empowered women to be fully engaged in the DRM or CCA process and made significant gains in gender equity.
Sub-theme 7: Designing and implementing multi-purpose water development projects
Improving water supply and use is essential for tackling drought. However, efforts to improve water supply must consider both domestic and productive use and ensure that water and sanitation needs are met alongside those for energy production, livestock or for irrigated agriculture. Papers which focus on the following are requested:
- Analysis of the need for multi-purpose systems and cost-benefit of such systems
- Practical experiences in implementing multi-purpose systems sustainably in ways which reduce drought risk.
Call for papers
There will be scope within the conference for papers on each of the above themes to be presented.
In order to be selected for inclusion in the conference, submit your abstract of 500 words (using the format attached) by 16th September 2011.
Please submit your abstract to by the 16th September 2011.
If your abstract is selected, you will be required to produce a full paper by 30th September 2011. PowerPoint presentations will then need to be submitted by 7th October.
No financial support can be offered for the preparation of papers. All papers will be credited to the authors and published in the proceedings of the conference.
Decisions about paper selection will be made by a committee representing the organisers of the conference, who will use the following criteria to evaluate the papers:
- Relevance to the theme of the conference
- Practical application of the paper’s findings by policy makers and practitioners
- Rigour of the evidence base upon which the paper is based
- Clarity of the papers’ argument and clear conclusions
The conference will be accompanied by an exhibition, if you do not want to submit a paper, then please contact the exhibition organisers to discuss exhibiting your organisation’s work, by emailing