2020•09•01     Bonn, Germany

©️ Pexel/Ariful Haque

As part of the Summer Academy on World Risk and Adaptation Futures programme, UNU-EHS and its partners are hosting a series of webinars on social protection (view flyer here).

A leading global challenge today centers on the capacity to make appropriate decisions that will navigate countries and communities towards a safe, sustainable future. Uncertainty about future risk trends plays a central role in whether or not policy makers and practitioners can make decisions that help society adapt to climate risks and capture the opportunities ahead. This is especially true in highly dynamic developing countries and emerging economies. Among others, social protection is of key importance in shaping human vulnerability towards floods, droughts, storms and other hazards. It includes important elements such as health insurance, cash transfer assistance, disability benefits and food assistance programmes.

All of these are of key relevance in mitigating vulnerability and buffering the effects of future climatic hazards. At the same time, social protection is undergoing massive transformations in many countries, mostly with uncertain outcomes and unclear effects on vulnerability and exposure to the climate change. Assessing plausible scenarios of future trajectories in social protection – and especially its breadth and depth – is therefore of great urgency.

Spread over the month of September, 2020, we aim to address the following three key issues:

• Socio-economic consequences of climate change and its implication for social protection
• Social protection mechanisms for climate change adaptation, including risk sharing and transfer
• Governance of social protection from the climate change perspective

EVENTS

9 September 2020, 12:00 – 13:30 p.m. CEST
Social protection as a tool to address climate change and sustainable development – from reactive to proactive social protection
Click here for further information.
Follow the livestream here.

15 September 2020, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. CEST
Adaptive social protection for building resilience against disasters and climate change: Insights from Indonesia and worldwide
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Follow the livestream here.

21 September 2020, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CEST
Social protection, climate change and COVID-19: Learning from non-state actors in Indonesia
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Follow the livestream here.

22 September 2020, 12:00 – 13:30 p.m. CEST
Future of social protection
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Follow the livestream here.

23 September 2020, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CEST
Trends in climate change vulnerability and social protection: What do we know on the global scale?
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Follow the livestream here.

23 September 2020, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. CEST
Global trends in social protection – case study presentation by the participants 1
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Follow the livestream here.

24 September 2020, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CEST
Global trends in social protection – case study presentation by the participants 2
Click here for further information.
Follow the livestream here.

The events are open to the public. Please register here. You will be sent an email with access information.

The “World Risk and Adaptation Futures – Social Protection” Summer Academy 2020 is being jointly organized by United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Munich Re Foundation (MRF) in collaboration with UN Climate Change. The Ludwig Maximilians University Munich (LMU) in Germany and Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) are associate partners for the 2020 summer academy. Starting with the question “What do decision makers in policy and practice need to know about risk and adaptation futures?”, each partner contributes to the unique environment of the summer academy to generate science and knowledge contributions that feed back into policy and practice.

Due to COVID-19, the format of this year’s Summer Academy has been adjusted. The webinars outlined here are preparatory virtual events open to the public, as well as to the selected participants of the academy. The in-person academy with only the selected participants will now take place in the first quarter of 2021.

For further information email please us at sa20@ehs.unu.edu.