Better resilience and disaster risk management is needed to prevent the harm that the increase in disasters is producing. My contribution has been to coordinate a programme in Ethiopia with the government and UNWFP to increase the capacity of local districts to reduce the impact of disasters and to support the government of Ecuador with UNDP to prepare better contingency plans.
During my time in Ethiopia (2011-2015) and especially, during the last three years, my role was to design, coordinate and implement a strategic programme between The World Food Programme and Government of Ethiopia for 2012-2015 for Disaster Risk Management Activities (budget ~$3 million) and to manage a program with 6 WFP experts and more than 20 government civil servants to provide every district of the country (more than 700) with a new and innovative disaster risk profile (with 100 socio-economic indicators), a disaster risk reduction plan, and an emergency plan that could help to better manage disasters. See a video here.
With UNDP Ecuador (2008-2009), I was part of the United Nations team advising the state minister for disaster risk reduction. I supported four municipalities to develop better plans to reduce and face socio-natural disasters. I trained more than 200 government authorities in communications and emergency situations and developed information technology innovations to improve the availability of disaster risk information.
During 2011, as part of the Spanish Aid country office, my role was to identify, monitor and evaluate more than 20 projects funded to the Ethiopian Government, UN Agencies, International and Local NGOs and Universities, related to disaster risk management, humanitarian affairs, refugees, social protection, refugees and water and sanitation (~ €10 million). Also, to support the development of the Spanish Development Assistance Framework with the Ethiopian government for 2011-2016 and to represent Spain in humanitarian forums.
