ICSU ROLAC at African Regional Implementation Workshop on Hazards

The workshop was organized by the ICSU Regional Office for Africa (ICSU ROA) and funded by a grant provided to ICSU by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The meeting was attended by African scientists and policy-makers working on the subject of disaster risk reduction, as well as by representatives of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) program, co-sponsored by ICSU, ISSC and UNISDR, as well as from the Asia-Pacific and the Latin American and Caribbean Regions.

ICSU ROLAC was represented by by Arturo J. Martínez, member of RCLAC and Kerstin Schmidt-Verkerk, Science Officer. They presented the ICSU ROLAC Science Plan “Understanding and Managing Risk Associated with Natural Hazards: A Comprehensive Scientific Approach for LAC” and the draft recommendations of the Regional Workshop "Disaster Risk Management in Latin America and the Caribbean: Towards a Project Plan for Integrating Science and Risk Management for the Region", which took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 3-5 September, 2012.

During the two-days event, participants discussed, in plenary sessions and in break-out groups, the Science Plans on Hazards and Disasters for Africa and potential ways for their implementation in line with the global approach of ICSU to the subject of Disaster Risk Reduction. This strategy had been discussed during the "Global-Regional Integration Workshop on Natural Hazards and Disasters”, which took place from 13-14 September, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.