Roundup: New UN-backed plan seeks to bolster disaster preparedness

A new initiative aimed at transforming the humanitarian response was launched Wednesday to shift the model of the work from a reactive system to one that looks forward and saves more lives, time and money, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here.

The new initiative was unveiled by the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the German Red Cross as the world negotiates a new climate deal in Paris, France, said Dujarric at a daily news briefing.

"The new approach, called Food Security Climate Resilience Facility or FoodSECuRe, will help release funds for disaster preparedness and response before a crisis hits while providing the necessary support for resilience building activities," he said. "WFP says that a shift in the humanitarian model from a reactive system to one that looks forward could save more lives, time and money."

This forecast-based approach will release funds for disaster preparedness and response before the crisis occurs while providing the necessary funds for resilience building activities.

Both FoodSECuRE and a Red Cross project in Uganda -- one in a range of Red Cross-Red Crescent forecast-based financing pilot projects -- have been activated in recent weeks to meet climate-related disasters, the dramatic predictions of El Nino and other extreme weather disasters.

An anticipatory response not only protects people's lives, but also saves money, a new WFP research shows. A 2015 FoodSECuRE analysis in Sudan and Niger shows that using a forecast-based system would lower the cost of the humanitarian response by 50 percent.

FoodSECuRE unlocks funds before disasters, but also ensures that funds are available between cycles of disasters, because only through reliable, multi-year funding will vulnerable people build their resilience to the effects of climate change.

"The humanitarian system is increasingly stretched financially and operationally," said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. "More weather disasters require responses in more places and for longer periods. We need new approaches."

"Now we have the tools to respond before a disaster hits and between recurrent disasters -- it's the only way to help lift vulnerable people out of a cycle of chronic hunger and poverty, for good," said Cousin. "Turning the FoodSECuRE tool into a meaningful global facility will require mobilizing 400 million U.S. dollars."

In Guatemala and Zimbabwe, funds have been released through FoodSECuRE in areas where drought risk is high due to El Nino. Farmers have been trained to grow drought-resistant crops and to change their agricultural practices to conserve both soil and water, so that even if the harvest is bad, people will still have food on the table.

Increasing climate disasters, humanitarian needs and short-term financing mechanisms mean that new approaches are urgently required. FoodSECuRE blends scientific forecasting mechanisms with flexible long-term financing that helps people build their resilience.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent has seven operational pilot projects of this new approach around the world. "Using state-of-the-art weather and climate forecasts, we can trigger action to prepare for disaster," said Garry Conille, the under secretary general of the IFRC. "Now, what is needed is a comprehensive strategy to fund the development and operationalization of forecast-based finance systems at the national and international level."

In Uganda, funds were released from a novel German Red Cross (GRC) preparedness fund to allow the Uganda Red Cross to distribute items based on a flood forecast. With a few days' anticipation of rising water levels, Red Cross volunteers distributed water purification tablets and flood protection items to hundreds of vulnerable families. This is part of a project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"Because of this El Nino that is battering this country, the Ugandan government and the Uganda Red Cross were able to do some pre-emptive interventions in Uganda," said Minister Musa Ecweru of Uganda at the Understanding Risk and Finance conference in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. "This is a real departure from our tradition of waiting until it arrives and then we act." Endit