Implementation Planning Workshop on International Flood Initiative (IFI) in Asia-Pacific

Flooding is one of the greatest water-related environmental disasters known to us — its human, material and ecological costs are staggering. The number of people vulnerable to devastating floods is expected to continue to rise due to large-scale urbanisation, population growth in flood-prone areas, deforestation, climate change and rising sea levels. On the other hand, floods are natural phenomena that contribute to the biodiversity and sustainability of ecosystems and many human activities.

To reconcile the relationships among development, environmental issues, and disasters, important global decisions were made and came to fruition in 2015, with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction adopted in March, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in December. For the achievement of these global agendas, it is essential to develop a new holistic risk-based approach to the Integrated Flood Management (IFM) that aims at minimising loss from flooding under climate change and maximising the net benefits from the use of flood plains for sustainable development. The International Flood Initiative (IFI), officially launched in 2005, has revised the strategy for promoting the IFM.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President of the World Bank Group Dr. Jim Yong Kim convened a High Level Panel on Water (HLPW), consisting of 11 sitting Heads of State and Government and one Special Adviser. The HLPW Action Plan developed in September 2016 insists that reducing the impact of water-related disasters is critical to achieve sustainable development. It also encourages to initiate an analysis of good practices on managing mega floods and droughts; to achieve sustainable development and then recommends and recommends to create a platform where states can share and exchange lessons and good practices; and to maximize the use of existing knowledge and create knowledge base and tools.

Responding to the encouraging guidance by the Action Plan, the IFI organized a side event of the 8th High-level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP) in Indonesia in November 2016, to review the key ideas of the IFI new strategy and the implementation planning framework and discuss how to realize the IFM for reducing flood risk under climate change and contributing to sustainable development. The discussion was summarized as the HELP-IFI Jakarta Statement.

This implementation planning workshop will discuss how to realize the actions recommended by the Statement in collaboration with the Participating Countries, the IFI Partners and Collaborators and the Donors.