CARRA – Managing Compound Risks in Central Asia: A Bird’s Eye View

1. CARRA – Managing Compound Risks in Central Asia: A Bird’s Eye View Presentation at the third inter-agency conference on “Improving Regional Coordination in Managing Compound Risks in Central Asia” Almaty, 14-15 April 2011 Johannes F. Linn jlinn@brookings.edu

2. Central Asia risks – what risks for whom? • For whom? Risks for people • The poor are especially vulnerable • But all people confront key risks and vulnerabilities • Minimizing risks and vulnerabilities for all people is a shared goal for LICs (Haiti), MICs (Chile) and HICs (Japan) • What risks: • Earthquakes • Other natural disasters (droughts, floods, etc.) • Water and energy shortages and price shocks • Food price increases • Economic shocks jlinn@brookings.edu

3. Central Asia regional risk management – why regional? Local and national-level action is the basic building block of risk management, but regional dimension matters • Regional phenomena – seismic risks, meteorological conditions, climate change, global food and energy prices, economic shocks • Cross-border impacts – earthquakes, floods, water and energy management, environmental events, displaced people • Regional crisis preparedness and response may be essential • Much is national and country specific, but • Regional, cross-border preparedness and response may be needed (e.g., major earthquake, floods, energy or water shortages) • Shared learning, training and capacity building jlinn@brookings.edu

4. CARRA issues Principal themes Cross-cutting focus issues Risk monitoring, early warning and research Disaster preparedness and and response Humanitarian-development linkages Regional cooperation and capacity building • Disaster risk reduction (DRR) • Water and energy security • Food security • Social Protection jlinn@brookings.edu

5. CARRA focus 1: Risk monitoring, early warning and research Need to monitor • Seismic risk and vulnerabilities • Hydro-meteorological and hydrological conditions • Household water, energy and food indicators (prices, access, etc.) • High vulnerability populations (monitoring and research) • High-frequency v. intermittent v. baseline CARRA focus: • Share information about which agency does what • Identify gaps in information and capacity • Cooperate in research on high vulnerability groups (esp. poverty impact analysis) • Exchange lessons, best practice, etc. jlinn@brookings.edu

6. CARRA focus 2: Disaster preparedness and response Need to prepare for and respond to • Sudden onset crisis: earthquakes, floods, conflict • Slow onset crisis: drought, food insecurity, economic crisis • Climate change • Local v. national v. regional scale CARRA focus: • Share information about which agency does what • Identify gaps in information, preparedness and response capacity • Exchange lessons and best practices in terms of preparedness and response activities (incl. social protection) • Bring to bear global experience/instruments jlinn@brookings.edu

7. CARRA focus 3: Humanitarian-development linkages Need to build three links: • Incorporate development considerations into crisis response • Focus on transition from crisis response to development assistance (“early recovery”) • Incorporate risk management into national/regional development planning CARRA focus: • Share information on which agency does what • Exchange lessons and best practice on how to scale up from successful local to national to regional interventions • Bring to bear global experience/instruments jlinn@brookings.edu

8. CARRA focus 4: Regional awareness, cooperation and capacity building Need to create greater • awareness within and outside the region of Central Asia’s risks and vulnerabilities • commitment to preparedness and response • readiness to cooperate regionally • capacity for regional preparedness and response CARRA focus: • Share information on which agency does what • Explore what regional organization is best able to take up risk monitoring, preparedness and response agenda • Engage regional stakeholders (esp. at high political level) • Disseminate information on Central Asia globally jlinn@brookings.edu

9. In conclusion • An important, big, complex, urgent agenda • The CARRA process adds value • For the future: Keep it focused, realistic, simple, scale up • Focus on people • Limit themes • Keep expectations realistic • Keep follow-up mechanisms simple • Build on success, scale up what works nationally and regionally • And keep committed to information sharing, coordination, partnership and engagement with country stakeholders jlinn@brookings.edu

10. Thank you!Спасибо! jlinn@brookings.edu