The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic at various levels in order to support its partners in acute emergencies, to secure development efforts and to learn from the crisis how risk management can be better designed in the future. In this workshop, GIZ will present activities and projects from on-site implementation, from policy advice, and from the development of new concepts for better crisis prevention. Together with the participants of the workshop, GIZ would like to exchange ideas about tools and experiences in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. The following inputs are prepared:
Crisis response in coping with the pandemic in Ukraine: How can German development cooperation support its partners in extraordinary crises without losing sight of the long-term perspective?
Covid-19 as a lens for systemic risks: how can political decisions regarding risk prevention in the sense of the Building Back Better approach be made more risk-informed?
Crisis prevention through awareness for fiscal policy for disaster risk management: How does a budget affect a city's capacities for better risk governance?

• Graphic Recording
• Presentation

German Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction 2021: GIZ workshop summary

Title of the workshop: COVID-19 in development cooperation: instruments and experiences from responding to and preventing crises

Speaker: Christian Poschmann, Mareike Bentfeld, Matthias Range, Arne Brandschwede

Date and time: Virtual format, October 25, 2021, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Language: English

Inputs
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic at various levels in order to support its partners in acute emergencies, to secure development efforts and to learn from the crisis how risk management can be better designed in the future. In the workshop, GIZ presented activities and measures from on-site implementation, from policy advice and from the development of new concepts for better crisis prevention.

Common theme was the idea of comprehensive risk management, i.e. the fact that no disaster or crisis is monocausal and that we need to integrate different hazards, sectors, and instruments from various disciplines to cope with systemic risks. This happens against the backdrop of making choices within a limited time frame and with limited budgets: how can we support our partners on the ground and likeminded decision-makers to best respond to disasters while not falling short of taking preventive action to stop disasters from reoccurring?

Input 1: Crisis response in coping with the pandemic: How can German development cooperation support its partners in extraordinary crises without losing sight of the long-term perspective?
Speaker: Christian Poschmann

In order to strengthen state and municipal emergency management (DSNS) in eastern Ukraine, GIZ is supporting state and municipal emergency services in the government-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast to deal with damage incidents. A regulated division of tasks between the emergency services as well as handling operations according to generally applicable rules are intended to contribute to sustainably improved, regional emergency management. One focus is on rural, structurally underserved communities and communities with a high density of vulnerable population groups. The first structures for this have already been created with joint training plans and training courses, which are ultimately aimed at strengthening self-help capacities for state and municipal emergency services. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, political priorities such as the establishment of structures for municipal emergency management in amalgamated communities took a back seat. To cope with the crises, GIZ quickly reacted with various measures: The local units of the DSNS as well as municipal emergency services were provided with basic protection and disinfection equipment to contain infections and contamination. Whenever possible, offline formats were shifted to online formats, such as the training of trainers to guarantee the long-term strengthening of the partner. One of the key lessons were to successfully combine building long-term resilient structures with the ability to react fast and flexible to support partners in need.

Input 2: COVID-19 as a magnifying glass for systemic risks: how can political decisions regarding risk prevention in the sense of the build back better approach be made more risk-informed?
Speaker: Mareike Bentfeld
Disasters - just as we are currently experiencing with COVID-19 - have impacts on a variety of areas such as public health, economy, governance, tourism, and critical infrastructure (e.g. hospitals, transport, water, communication). Disaster risk management is a cross-sectoral issue. The greatest single driver of disaster risk is weak governance. Reducing the risk of a disaster requires vision, planning and competence. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, is illustrating the vulnerability and interdependencies of all social policy fields and sectors worldwide. Almost no state was adequately prepared for the impacts and challenges of the pandemic. However, managing the crisis is particularly overwhelming for those countries without efficient state institutions (i.e. weak governance). Often, the expertise, capacities and skills of actors and decision-makers are not yet at a level that would enable them to address risks effectively. Against this background, the Global Initiative for Disaster Risk Management (GIDRM) is geared towards fostering risk-informed development (RID), i.e. an understanding of development that takes into account systemic risks. Stakeholders and institutions involved have to be strengthened in their capacities and competences to make risk-informed decisions. RID helps to enable participation in political decision-making to foster resilience and leave no one behind.

Input 3: Crisis prevention through fiscal policy awareness of disaster risk management: How does a budget affect a city's capacities for better risk governance?
Speaker: Matthias Range

In addition to structural measures at the national level to reduce the negative effects of extreme events such as floods, additional measures need to be taken at the local level to build disaster-resistant communities. This includes private and public finance measures, including fiscal policy approaches, which play a crucial role in developing strategies for financing risk management activities. The Risk Financing and Insurance team at GIZ is developing a fiscal budgeting tool that will be piloted in the Accra metropolitan area, Ghana. It examines the role that public budget financial management can play at local level in order to better prepare local authorities for disaster risks and to identify gaps in how ex-ante and ex-post funds can be better coordinated. Ultimately, the instrument is intended to analyze how a municipal budget affects the capacities for disaster risk management at the municipal level. All DRM dimensions are taken into account, i.e. prevention, risk transfer, preparation, as well as reaction and reconstruction. This allows a better awareness for continuously recognizing and acting on disaster risks.