Blog with us about the GPDRR13

IT’S AN ISSUE OF LANGUAGE EVEN WHILE WE ALL SPEAK ENGLISH

It is striking how often the issue of language, understanding and ways of communication came up as a key issue in various sessions.

During one private sector session, a PwC crisis management expert commented on the challenge of taxonomy and how the public and private sectors have a very different language to describe the same thing. One example is how the public sector may talk in terms of climate change adaptation and the private sector in terms of water supply security.

The same point was made in NGO consultations: at the community level DRR mostly means livelihoods but talking to local and national government officials it is often interpreted as a response/preparedness issue.

Connecting different worlds and different levels is one of the key challenges for the HFA2. As one NGO representative said: ‘We need to build and all contribute to a framework that is connected to local realities.’

This is often not the case currently. During the community stakeholder consultations one representative from the Philippines said: 'Communities don’t really know what HFA is.’ Her comment drew a series of nods of agreement from her peers around the room.

On a brighter note, the forum agreed to learn from the Philippines, one of the few countries in the world where community groups are systematically present and able to influence national level decision making on DRR.