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Welfare of working animals in Disaster Risk Management

Brooke, Action for Working Horses and Donkeys, an international charity dedicated to protecting and improving the lives of horses, donkeys, and mules, commissioned IRMA to shed light on an often-overlooked aspect of disaster risk management—the welfare of working animals. Working animals (including horses, mules, oxen and buffalo) are those who contribute their own force/work (agriculture, transportation, etc.). In comparison, production animals (such as cows, goats, and sheep and poultry) are raised for the food they produce. While production animals are regularly remembered given the products we consume daily (meat, milk, eggs, cheese), working animals are sorely neglected.

The goal of the participatory research study is to explore the needs of decision-makers, and the extent to which working animals are protected in disaster risk management policies and actions.

This study spans six countries—Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and Senegal—where working animals are vital to local economies and livelihoods. Each Brooke Country Office has opted in to collect the qualitative data (Key informant interview with government authorities representing National Disaster and Animal Welfare) and community members, using standard interview instruments. In partnership with Brooke, IRMA trained, coached the teams remotely and is responsible for the analysis, Data Party and reporting. The key deliverable of the study is a peer-reviewed academic article to be submitted to a journal. The research will end in 2025 with concrete recommendations for the protection of working animals and the disaster resilience of animal-reliant communities.

The team for this assignment includes Lezlie C. Morinière, and Ambre Caillot.

Evaluation of UNESCO’s contributions to Disaster Risk Reduction

As the Sendai Framework’s 10th birthday approaches in September 2025, UNESCO seeks to take stock of and examine it’s widespread contributions to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).

UNESCO commissioned IRMA for the evaluation of its work on DRR. Recognising that UNESCO’s work on DRR covers 60 years and has never been the subject of an external evaluation, the scope of this evaluation is 2015 to 2024, inclusive, which represents the first ten years of UNESCO’s contribution to the Sendai Framework. The evaluation has two inter-connected objectives. The summative objective is to assess what has been achieved so far in DRR by UNESCO through different sectors workstreams. The formative objective will inform UNESCO’s decision-making and programming on DRR through provision of evidence-based and future-oriented recommendations. Both aspects should also enable UNESCO to identify its added value in DRR.

Importantly, UNESCO’s origin story proposed an organisation “to advance sustainable development, lasting peace, and meaningful international cooperation, on the basis of solidarity and dialogue, mutual respect and justice”. This indicates that conflict–as only one of many hazards–is key to retain as part of the multi-hazard evaluation focus, This also aligns to the globally accepted definition of disaster risk reduction (UNDRR 2019). Since the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) was launched in 2015, UNESCO has increasingly aligned its investments with the Framework’s objectives and four priorities. In 2021, UNESCO Member States approved the creation of an independent DRR unit. This decision was made in response to growing requests for support from national governments. The unit operates under the Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences as part of UNESCO’s 2022-2029 strategy and budget.

The cross-sectoral unit has two main goals. First, it aims to mainstream DRR and climate change adaptation within UNESCO and other UN entities. Second, it coordinates UNESCO’s DRR work with key programs such as the International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme (IGGP), the Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP).