Event description
Climate-related and geophysical disasters between 1998 and 2017 led to the deaths of “1.3 million people and left a further 4.4 billion injured, homeless, displaced or in need of emergency assistance. While the majority of fatalities were due to geophysical events, mostly earthquakes and tsunamis, 91% of all disasters were caused by floods, storms, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events” (UNISDR, 2018: 3).

To reduce disaster deaths and losses, the UN’s ‘Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction’ has set seven global targets, of which, the first two targets are: ‘Substantially reduce disaster mortality by 2030’ (target A) and ‘Substantially reduce the number of affected people by disasters by 2030’ (target B). These targets are aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 1 (No Poverty, Target 1.5), 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing, Target 3.8), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities, Target 11.5) and 13 (Climate Action, Target 13.1).

A large proportion of these deaths are avoidable through preventative, timely intervention and governance measures (Ray-Bennett et al., 2023), and yet they continue to occur largely in low- and middle-income countries with severe consequences for sustainable development (UNDRR, 2023).

So, what are the leading causes of disaster deaths? Who is carrying the burden of disaster deaths? What are the circumstances that lead to disaster deaths? How can disaster deaths be reduced? What are the challenges and opportunities of focusing on ‘disaster deaths’ for risk-informed sustainable development?

This face-to-face interactive session on ‘QI Quiz on Avoidable Disaster Deaths’ will explore these questions and many more by engaging with the audience and a team of nine technical experts.

This face-to-face session will be based on the concept of a popular television programme in the UK on BBC 2 QI aka Quite Interesting Quiz Show. The objective of this session is to raise awareness of avoidable disaster deaths and how can they be avoided. Therefore, receiving the correct answers from the audience is not necessarily the goal.

The session will have 15 QI quizzes for the audience. The rules of the QI quizzes will be presented at the beginning by the chair. If the audience wants, they can form a group and take part in the quiz.

Event objectives

The objectives of this Session are:

To raise the visibility of ‘causes and circumstances of disaster deaths’ as a meaningful tool for anticipatory action to reduce
avoidable disaster deaths;

To increase knowledge on avoidable disaster deaths both for the session organisers and also for the audience. The proposed innovative
session offers a platform to learn from each other. Most importantly this session is also an opportunity for a participant to show off their level of knowledge to all;

To bring world-class experts, academics and practitioners and the global audience in one location and learn about their tried and tested,
impactful 'measures and interventions that can avoid disaster deaths, locally and globally;

To share challenges, opportunities and lessons learnt to improve disaster preparedness, response and recovery so that the number of
disaster deaths and people affected by disasters can be reduced by 2030;

ADN is part of the Sendai Framework’s Voluntary Commitments (SFVC) Platform. Our Voluntary Commitments to the UNDRR are up until 2030 on the first two targets of the Sendai Framework at the interface with three Sustainable Development Goals (11, 13 and 17). As such, this event will be an opportunity to uphold our Commitments to the UNDRR and also raise the visibility of these Commitments at the UNOCHA’s Summit in Geneva; and

Most importantly the objective of this session is also to have fun and make the learning process entertaining and by doing so, promote
active learning.

Chair/s

Dr Nibedita Ray-Bennett and Dr Albrecht Beck

Technical Experts

Dr Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett, Associate Professor in Risk Management, Founding President of ADN, University of Leicester, UK.

Dr Winifred Ekezie, Co-Director of Centre for Health and Society, Aston University, UK

Mr Tom Mecrow, Sr. International Evidence Manager, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, UK

Dr Hideyuki Shiroshita, Associate Professor in Disaster Education, Founding President of ADN, Kansai University, Japan

Dr Albrecht Beck, Director of Prepared International, Germany

Dr Stephen Samuel, Sr. Vice President of Clinical Medicine, Ophirex Inc., USA

Mr Dillip Pattanaik, Executive Director of Orissa State Volunteers Social Workers Association, India

Dr Edris Alam, Associate Professor and Associate Researcher of Rabadan Academy, UAE.

Professor Alois Hirschmugl, Technical Director of DMAT Consulting KG, Austria

Target audience

National governments, NGOs, students, academics, researchers, policy influencers etc.

Engagement and participation

The QI quiz on avoidable disaster deaths will last for 70 minutes with a concluding remark from the technical expert team and the audience (10 minutes).

Another 10 minutes will be allocated for a pre-and post-poll survey to assess the level of confidence and knowledge gained by the audience (using a 5-level Likert scale).

Participants joining online can share their answers by using digital tools such as “Padlet” and “Ziteboard”. This will be moderated by the
ADN social media coordinator on the ADN YouTube channel and event pages.

The event will be recorded and streamed live on YouTube.

We will initiate LinkedIn and Facebook event pages, and generate demand and dissemination for this event through ADN and Prepared
International’s established social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn).

ADN and Prepared International have extensive experience and capacity to conduct virtual events with global disaster risk reduction (DRR), humanitarian, development and health audiences.