Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks

Session title: Nature-based Solutions for Climate Resilience in Humanitarian Action

26 Apr 23 14:00-15:30 UTC+2 (Amphitheatre D bis)

SessionAbstract

Panel Session and Guidance Launch

In the coming decades growing disaster risk, driven in part by climate change and environmental degradation, threatens to exceed the humanitarian sector’s capacity to respond to crises. The increasing severity and frequency of climate-related disasters exacerbate underlying risks, stoke conflict, and undermine humanitarian and development gains.

Too often Internally Displaced Persons and refugee camps evolve into multi-generational communities that struggle with environmental degradation with limited pathways out of poverty and to self reliance. Within these complex response dynamics, the environment is often overlooked or is treated as an afterthought. Yet it is fundamental to effective humanitarian action.

Nature-based solutions are a powerful tool for enhancing resilience, supporting sustainable development, and improving the quality of life of affected communities while safeguarding the livelihoods and ecosystems they depend upon. Nature-based solutions can provide multiple benefits simultaneously relevant to humanitarian contexts. In addition to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions can provide health benefits and food and water security, among others. These benefits are directly tied to the work of key humanitarian clusters, including food security and nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene and health, as well as other cross-sectoral linkages. Coinciding with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Sphere standards, this panel session will hear from experts from the field on how nature-based solutions can help build resiliency in humanitarian settings.

This session will also mark the launch of the ‘Nature-based Solutions for Climate Resilience in Humanitarian Contexts – A Sphere Unpacked Guide’. Developed in partnership between Sphere and the NbS in Humanitarian Contexts Working Group, this guidance provides practical guidance to those interested in implementing nature-based solutions in humanitarian settings. If you are interested in integrating environmental considerations that benefit both people and the environment into humanitarian action, then this guide is for you. Please join us.

Speakers

Moderator: Nathalie Doswald,Senior Officer, Nature-based Solutions, IFRC and co-Chair of the NbS in Humanitarian Contexts Working Group
Opening Remarks: William Anderson, Executive Director, Sphere
Panelists:
- Raquib Amin, Country Representative, IUCN Bangladesh & Sub-regional Leader South Asia
- Sarah-Henly-Shepard, MPH, Ph.D. Executive Director, Disaster Resilience LLC and co-Chair of the NbS in Humanitarian Contexts Working Group.
- Maher Alabrsh, Sphere trainer and Agriculture-Based Livelihood Officer, FAO Syria
- Julia Velez Ardaiz, Green Pearl Program Program Manager Delegate in Haiti, Netherlands Red Cross
- Mandy George, Senior Environmental Advisor, Global Shelter Cluster, IFRC

Biographies:

Nathalie Doswald, Senior Officer, Nature-based Solutions, IFRC and co-Chair of the NbS in Humanitarian Contexts Working Group:

Nathalie has been working for over a decade in international nature conservation and development, providing technical expertise and research to inform policy and decision-making processes. She holds a PhD in Ecology, specializing in impacts of climate change on biodiversity. She now work as Senior Officer Nature-based Solutions at IFRC. Prior to that she supported the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Disasters and Conflicts Program, to up-scale Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR), under the umbrella of Nature-based Solutions to increase peoples’ resilience to disaster and climate impacts. Prior to that, she was a Programme Officer at UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Center, she became one of the leading experts on Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), helping to further develop the concept of EbA, collating several case studies and undertook a systematic review of the effectiveness of EbA.

William Anderson, Executive Director, Sphere:

William joined Sphere in January 2023. Prior to this, he worked for twelve years with Christian Aid, ten years with Medair and three years as a senior consultant with various humanitarian and development organizations at international, national and local levels. Through his work, William has spent time with communities affected by conflict, crisis or disaster in Zimbabwe, Kenya and India, and, more recently, Ethiopia, Moldova and Ukraine. William holds a Master of Theology from St Andrews University in Scotland and a Business Administration (Strategy) certification from the Open University. He speaks English and French.

Raquib Amin, Country Representative, IUCN Bangladesh & Sub-regional Leader South Asia

Raquib has the overall responsibility of representing IUCN in Bangladesh, working with the governmental, non-governmental and other civil sector partners, and with members of the international community in Bangladesh. In addition, he helps to build bridges between governmental & non-governmental sectors and between national, regional, transboundary and global institutions and promote IUCN as a neutral convening platform. He brings over 20 years of diversified experience working in multiple countries and multi-disciplinary settings covering natural resource management, building resilience, integrated coastal management, and sustainable livelihoods development. He has worked in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Seychelles, Maldives, Myanmar, and Viet Nam. Mr Amin holds an M.Sc. degree in Environmental Technology from the Imperial College of London.

Sarah-Henly-Shepard, MPH, Ph.D. Executive Director, Disaster Resilience LLC and co-Chair of the NbS in Humanitarian Contexts Working Group.

Sarah is the Executive Director of Disaster Resilience LLC, a humanitarian development consulting organization operating in the U.S. and internationally. Dr. Henly-Shepard has over 20 years of experience in program design, adaptive programming, participatory research, analysis, and policy and advocacy, in the fields of public health, humanitarian assistance, human rights, disaster risk reduction and resilience, climate change adaptation, and natural resource management. Her degrees includes a BA from the University of Texas-Austin (2004) in Latin American Studies, a Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University (2008) with a Certificate in Humanitarian Assistance, Health and Human Rights, a Ph.D. in Natural Resource & Environmental Management and a Certificate in Urban and Regional Planning, with her dissertation on Community Disaster Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation, from the University of Hawai‘i @ Mānoa (2013). Sarah is a previous Board member and North America Focal Point of the Global Network for Civil Society Organisations in Disaster Reduction, and is the founder and co-Chair of the Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in Humanitarian Contexts Working Group, including co-authoring the forthcoming ‘Nature-based Solutions for Climate Resilience in Humanitarian Contexts – A Sphere Unpacked Guide.

Maher Albrsh, Sphere trainer and Agriculture-Based Livelihood Officer, FAO Syria

Maherhas fifteen years of experience in humanitarian work, as an agricultural engineer specializing in renewable natural resources and the environment, as a Sphere trainer since 2015, aLivestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) trainer, a trainer in quality and accountability, and a trainer of trainers in disaster management. He participated in all details of the response to the crisis in Syria since 2011 and until now. Since 2020 Maher has worked as an agricultural livelihood officer and coordinator of the food and agricultural sector with theFood and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Julia Velez Ardaiz, Green Pearl Program Programme Manager Delegate in Haiti, Netherlands Red Cross

Julia represents the Netherlands Red Cross in Haiti as the Green Pearl Program Manager Delegate. Julia has worked on community resilience in difficult humanitarian contexts, including the effects of climate and socioeconomic background, for more than five years. Julia has become increasingly passionate about enhancing community resilience through local and adaptive NbS. She contributes every day to addressing the many hazards that vulnerable communities are exposed to by drawing on my good educational foundation and career-driven zeal for gender equity and sustainable livelihoods.

Mandy George, Senior Environmental Advisor, Global Shelter Cluster, IFRC

Mandy George is Senior Environmental Adviser to the Global Shelter Cluster and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Shelter Team. Mandy specialises in environmental mainstreaming in humanitarian action. With over 15 years of experience in the humanitarian sector, her experience includes long term field experience in Haiti and Myanmar, with many other short missions across the globe, working primarily with the UN and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. Mandy has focused the last ten years of her career on environment in humanitarian action, supporting organisations and operations to reduce their environmental impact during response and recovery. This includes designing and implementing environmental assessment and screening tools such asNEAT+, and writing and implementing guidance on environmental mainstreaming, including for theSphere Standardsand resources such asEHA Connect. Mandy has a MA in Environment and Development Studies from King's College London, and a BA in Modern European Studies from University College London