Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks
HNPW 2024 (29 April - 10 May 2024)
          


 
Session title: Climate Change - what’s the state of readiness of the humanitarian sector to meet this growing demand?
26 Apr 23 09:30-10:30   (Espace telecom)
 
SessionAbstract

As the effects of the climate emergency are felt around the world, the work of humanitarian organisations is crucial. Even if green-house gas emissions were to halt overnight, climate change is already locked in, which means that adaptation, disaster preparedness and response due to flooding, drought, wildfires and increased storminess is going to be needed more than ever before. This panel discussion – led by the sustainability & climate change champion and RedR UK CEO, Sally Sudworth – will debate the questions:

“What’s the state of readiness of the humanitarian sector to meet this growing demand?”

"What’s your state of preparedness?"

“What are the capacity gaps or learning needs of humanitarian organisations, especially those of local actors active within the humanitarian-development nexus”?


Agenda



Speakers

Host:

  • Sally Sudworth – CEO, RedR UK – BSc CEng CEnv FIAM FICE FWES  

Panel Members:

  • Marion Reinosa – Researcher, Evaluator, Trainer – Climate advisor at Groupe URD
  • Ninni Ikkala Nyman – Climate and Resilience Lead at IFRC
  • Kirsten Hagon – Senior Analyst of Humanitarian Policy at IFRC


Sally Sudworth – CEO, RedR UK – BSc CEng CEnv FIAM FICE FWES

Sally is the CEO of RedR UK which is an international humanitarian learning provider with a strong engineering background that prepares organisations and humanitarians worldwide to more effectively respond to emergencies such as the ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa, last year’s floods in Pakistan, the recent as earthquakes in Turkiye, Syria and Haiti (2021), as well as the war in Ukraine.

She is a chartered engineer and chartered environmentalist, a fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Institution of Asset Management (IAM) and the Women’s Engineering Society (WES).  As a keen champion for sustainability and climate change, Sally promotes a proactive response through a number of industry bodies. She founded and chaired the climate emergency group at WES, co-chaired the climate emergency programme at the IAM and also sat on the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction Carbon Code advisory group. A regular speaker at conferences and events, Sally organised and chaired a joint panel session at COP26 in Glasgow on sustainability and the climate emergency, co-ordinating representation from the IAM, WES and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations. She was awarded the IAM President’s special award and the Isabel Hardwich medal in recognition of her work. She also delivered the ICE Prestige lecture in Feb 2022 on water and sustainability.

Prior to working at Mott MacDonald as the global head of sustainability and climate change, Sally led the net zero carbon strategy for infrastructure at the UK Environment Agency. She was Flood Exec for the Northwest, and before that was director for the low zero carbon hub in Wales.

Sally has held a number of trustee positions; at RedR UK and at Engineers for Overseas Development, an engineering charity that provides development opportunities for graduates to become professionally qualified. She was also a trustee and board director at WES, as well as serving as ICE Wales Cymru Chair in 2010. Sally also sits on the Disciplinary Board at the ICE.


Marion Reinosa – Researcher, Evaluator, Trainer – Climate advisor at Groupe URD

Marion has been a research manager and climate advisor at Groupe URD since 2022. She is a trained architect and urban planner. Her interest in the environment and the climate, and their impacts on housing rights and displacement, led her to specialise in risk reduction and climate change adaptation. She subsequently began a PhD exploring the relations between spatial planning practices and climate change as potential design tools for climate change adaptation in South-East Asia. Before joining Groupe URD, Marion spent several years on the ground managing climate change projects in a UN agency and research institutes. Thanks to these opportunities, she gained extensive knowledge of local realities by working with vulnerable communities.

At Groupe URD, her main areas of activity concern the adaptation of the aid sector to the climate crisis and disaster risk reduction for human settlements. She recently supported DG ECHO in mapping and analysing the state of expertise available to organisations to turn the Climate Charter into action.


Ninni Ikkala Nyman – Climate and Resilience Lead at IFRC

Ninni is Lead, Climate and Resilience a.i. at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red crescent Societies (IFRC), where she works on scaling-up the IFRC network’s strategic and programmatic approach to climate in its 192 National Societies, with a focus on increasing community resilience to climate change. She has 15 years of experience in climate change adaptation and climate policy.

She’s worked in developing, managing and evaluating climate change adaptation programmes from community-level initiatives to global multi-country programmes. She´s provided strategic guidance to institutions in integrating climate change into their priorities and programmes.  Her work has also included advising and training governments and organisations on international climate change policy under the UNFCCC and national adaptation planning.

Previously, she worked for UNDP, IUCN and the Government of Finland, in addition to consulting for a range of UN agencies and environmental organisations. Ninni holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and has worked in particular in South and South-East Asia and Latin America.  

 

Kirsten Hagon – Senior Analyst of Humanitarian Policy at IFRC

Kirsten has been part of IFRC's humanitarian policy and diplomacy team, based in Geneva, since 2017 leading on strategic advocacy for the IFRC Network. Her work includes coordinating IFRC network engagement in multilateral events (Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees, IMRF, GPDRR, UNFCCC processes etc.), and managing major IFRC policy publications including the World Disasters Report. She coordinated IFRC engagement in the UNFCCC COP and was the lead author for the 2020 World Disasters Report which focused on the climate crisis. She has the privilege of being able to learn from and build on years of IFRC network disaster risk management, climate and environment related programming and policy engagement. IFRC has been concerned about the humanitarian impacts of climate and environment crises since the 1970s when this issue was first recognized in the organization’s statutory meetings, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre has existed for some 20 years, engaging in the global climate policy and negotiation processes.

Kirsten co-chairs the IASC working group on climate change which is currently working to coordinate humanitarian engagement in climate processes. The team is also working to develop a roadmap to support scaled up climate action by humanitarian organizations – inputs welcome!

By background, she is an international lawyer by training with experience in the areas of humanitarian policy, strategic advocacy, protection and forced displacement. She took some time away from Geneva to take up the role of IFRC’s head of delegation in Palestine during the 2021 escalation of hostilities. Previously she was the director of Oxfam International's New York UN liaison office, focussing on Security Council engagement, as well as their Geneva based Humanitarian Representative and head of humanitarian policy.  She has also worked with UNHCR, UNDP, the ICC, and for the Swiss Development Cooperation, with postings including Darfur, Uganda, Chad, Palestine and Egypt.


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