IRDR - Addressing the challenges of natural & human-induced environmental hazards

Research Areas 8 and 17

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) is issuing a Fourth Call for Abstracts as part of the development of the 2015 Global Assessment Report (GAR15). The GAR15 will be published prior to the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015, in which governments will adopt a successor framework to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA).

The purpose of this Call for Abstracts is to encourage more research investigating the degree to which the HFA has been fit-for-purpose in affecting change in the management of disaster risk, and in so doing, contribute to both the formulation of the successor framework to the HFA (the HFA2), as well as the development of indicators for effectively measuring the impact of the forthcoming framework.

UNISDR seeks input papers to the 2015 Global Assessment Report (GAR15) that present research, oriented by indicator, addressing the following issues:

what changes have been observed since the adoption of the HFA in 2005, and what has been the impact in terms of risk to society;
to what degree has change been facilitated by the HFA or other emerging drivers of effective disaster risk management;
determine if the change was adequately captured by the indicator in its current form and if not propose an alternative impact indicator;
what elements will need to be developed for inclusion in the successor framework to the HFA.
The deadline for submitting abstracts is 1 month after the date of the Call.
Abstracts should be 300 words or less.
Abstracts are to be submitted to gar15_HFA@un.org using the submission template available athttp://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/networks/private/hfa-thematic-review/
Abstracts must be informed by the Call for Abstracts, Guidance Document and the Concept Paper available on the dedicated workspace.
After review of the abstracts by UNISDR, the Coordinating Organisation and the Coordinating Lead Author, UNISDR will invite successful applicants to develop full GAR15 input papers for submission by the date specified in respective Concept Papers (and by the latest 21 February 2014).
Input papers will be used by the Coordinating Lead Author to develop GAR15 Background Papers, which will be subjected to both an informal peer review, as well as an external peer review.

A final Call will be issued in January 2014 covering Research Area 14.

All input papers will be made available online as an annex to GAR15. In addition, UNISDR will coordinate the submission of all final papers to an academic journal for consideration in a special issue focusing on the state of disaster risk management. The use of Input Papers in the development of GAR 15 Background Papers will be at the discretion of the CLA.

All details, background documents and concept papers are available at http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/networks/private/hfa-thematic-review/