Side Event: Making communities resilient to floods -What does it take? Join us at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai to challenge the lessons that the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance is learning about building resilience. We hope you will join this energetic and highly interactive session to contribute with your ideas and innovations to build the resilience of poor and high risk communities to the ever increasing hazard of floods There is growing recognition of the importance of local decision-making and local action for building resilience in poor and high risk communities. Catalysed by the original Hyogo Framework of Action many national governments have set up disaster funds to finance activities when disaster strikes, but for are these funds and the huge amount of humanitarian assistance provided each year leading to positive change for the poorest and most vulnerable? In this session, the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance invites you to assess and explore innovative approaches that can support the decision-making process to help those when and where it matters most. Attention will be given to:  Challenges to measuring a complex and dynamic phenomenon such as community resilience over time and place  Using measurement and tools such as cost-benefit analysis to prioritize and inform strategic decision making for resilience interventions  Implementing the right interventions based on both quantitative and qualitative assessments PUBLIC FORUM EVENT #340 Monday March 16, 2015 13.00 to 15.30 Doors open at 13.00 Tohoku University Kawauchi-kita Campus Room C205 The Session will be in English For further information: Linda Freiner [email protected] Key Note Speakers  Geoffrey Riddell, Regional Chairman of Asia-Pacific and Middle East, Zurich Insurance Group  Reinhard Mechler Deputy Program Director, Risk, Policy, and Vulnerability Program, IIASA, Austria  Representatives from international development agency (TBC) Discussion Leaders  Nathan Cooper, Senior Advisor, American Red Cross & IFRC, Switzerland  Gehendra Gurung, Head, Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change, Practical Action, Nepal  Colin McQuistan, Senior Advisor Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction, Practical Action, UK  Ian O’Donnell, Senior Advisor, Global Disaster Preparedness Center & American Red Cross, USA Facilitated by  Linda Freiner, Flood Resilience Program Manager, Zurich Insurance Group, Switzerland