Disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA)

While the occurrence of large-scale disasters is relatively rare in Laos compared to other regions of the world, the high and increasing frequency of smaller-scale events constantly threatens the fragile development gains. Climate change is expected to raise temperatures, modify precipitation patterns and increase both the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather-related events, thereby threatening people’s coping and adaptation capacities. In this context, the Government of Laos (GoL) has endorsed the mainstream, globally accepted DRR and CCA agenda, mechanisms, norms, and models (e.g. the Hyogo Framework for Action – HFA), and complied with the paradigm shift from a top-down, response-oriented disaster management approach to a more holistic, bottom-up model that acknowledges the importance of preparedness and mitigation at all levels of society. As a result, community-level development and policy interventions have mushroomed in Laos, often with support from international development partners.

Small Agricultural Rural infrastructure (SARI e.g. small-scale irrigation networks, paddy fields and river bank reinforcement, water supply infrastructure) can also play a key role in DRR an CCA strategies. However, the negotiation of rules and mechanisms for the management and maintenance of such infrastructure is usually neglected, jeopardizing the profitability of such investments.

The development of early warning systems to alert farmers on climatic hazards have mushroomed worldwide and in Laos, with however limited evidence regarding their impact on farming communities vulnerability to climatic hazards.

The purpose of this workshop was to review lessons from these initiatives and to formulate and propose concrete, evidenced-based policy recommendations.

Issues and questions addressed during the workshop 

• Approaches and challenges in assessing the vulnerability of mountain communities: rethinking vulnerability beyond stereotypes
• Linkages vulnerability, poverty and adaptation planning to better understand the relations between adaptive capacity and socioeconomic development,
• Potential gaps in the institutional framework and coordination mechanisms from an adaptation perspective,
• Mechanisms to buffer the potentially negative consequences of rapid market integration on people (e.g. through education) as well as on the environment (e.g. through soil and forest conservation)
• Impact of integrated landscape management and small agricultural rural infrastructure on farming community sensitivity to climatic hazards
• Impact of early warning systems on farming community response capacity to climatic hazards