From Awareness to Action: Practical actions for disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction

International sign language interpretation will be provided

Background

Disability accessibility, inclusion and leadership remain insufficiently prioritized across disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiatives, even though persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted before, during and after disasters, and States are legally obliged to ensure that they are actively involved through their representative organizations. Within the humanitarian community, attention and funding often concentrate on development, emergency response and climate action, while disaster prevention and risk reduction can appear abstract or disconnected from daily priorities. At the same time, disability-inclusive DRR efforts are often spread across several networks and mechanisms and frequently biased towards vulnerability rather than strength, creating risks of marginalization and duplication, gaps in participation and fragmented advocacy. 

Organized by the Thematic Group on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Action (TGDRRCA), the Sendai Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism (SEM) Persons with Disabilities constituency and UNDRR, this webinar offers a practical entry point for organizations and stakeholder constituencies seeking to strengthen disability inclusion in their everyday work. Through practical examples and discussion, participants will identify simple, achievable actions that they can integrate into their policies, programmes, partnerships, and advocacy efforts.

Participants will also explore the practical implications of the proposed Convention on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters (PPED) and consider how collective analysis, evidence, and advocacy resources developed by DiDRRN and TGDRRCA can support informed and coordinated engagement in the lead-up to the PPED negotiations.

Overall, the session aims to strengthen coordination among SEM members and constituencies, TGDRRCA, and other disability-inclusive DRR networks, helping to connect practical organizational action with more coherent collective advocacy.

Purpose and objectives

To help participants understand why disability accessibility, inclusion, and resourced leadership of representative organizations of persons with disabilities are essential for effective DRR, and to leave with three practical actions they can begin applying immediately in their own organizations, programs, and advocacy.

The webinar aims to:

• Explain disability-inclusive DRR in clear, accessible terms and show why it is relevant across every organization and stakeholder constituency.
• Share three minimum actions that organizations of any size or level of technical capacity can take.
• Center the leadership, knowledge, and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations.
• Demonstrate why investments in sustained, disability-led DRR coordination at global, regional, national, and local levels are beneficial for the whole community
• Connect immediate practice to current advocacy on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters (PPED), international campaign days, and advancing implementation of the disaster risk reduction agenda through 2030 and beyond
• Invite participants into an aligned coordination pathway through TGDRRCA and SEM. 

Accessibility

Interpretation will be available in International Sign and live captioning in English

Time

The session will run from 11:00 to 12:30 CEST, with a short 5-minute sensory break scheduled at 12:00.