• The new United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat (UNISDR) system provides coherent and coordinated approach among all global stakeholders for disaster reduction and recovery.
• The ongoing UNISDR processes, particularly joint work programs, strengthen global advocacy, knowledge sharing, and partnerships in disaster reduction.
• The focus of the Facility is on building capacities at the local and national levels to disaster proof the MDGs.
  

OPERATIONS
The Global Facility has three-track operations to achieve its development objectives at the global, regional and country levels. These include the following key deliverables under each track, in order of increasing financial importance:

Under TRACK-I:
Global and Regional Deliverables
GFDRR Track-I Work Plan for 2008
GFDRR products and interim results
This track will support ISDR’s global and regional processes to enable leveraging country resources for ex-ante investment in prevention, mitigation and preparedness activities, particularly in low-income countries. The key deliverables are:

• Enhancing global and regional advocacy, partnerships and knowledge management facilitated through the UNISDR for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR) in low and middle income countries at risk (e.g., strengthening UNISDR platform and its outreach in different regions; regional and sub-regional initiatives in benchmarking of risks and resilience; regional/ sub-regional plan of action for DRR; regional/ sub-regional early warning strategies; global/regional/ sub-regional catastrophic risk financing initiatives; promoting/ strengthening partnerships in disaster risk reduction particularly with universities, scientific and technical institutions, private sector, research organizations and professional bodies etc; establishing a virtual clearinghouse for disaster risk reduction)
• Standardizing hazard risk management tools, methodologies and practices (e.g. reporting on national good practices in disaster reduction and recovery; developing country-driven and country-owned risk assessment methodologies, country-based damage and needs assessment techniques, environmentally sustainable disaster reduction and recovery practices; promoting and supporting global disaster reduction research forum to highlight ongoing national research in DRR and gaps)
  

Under TRACK-II:
Country level deliverables
This track will provide technical assistance to assist low and middle income countries to mainstream disaster risk reduction in strategic planning, particularly the Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) and various sectoral development policies. The key deliverables are:

• Ex-ante risk management strategy and institutional development including early warning systems and emergency preparedness in low and middle income countries (e.g. National Strategies for Risk Reduction, Institutional framework for risk management, including policy, legal, and organizational elements, national plans for multi-hazard early warning systems, national incident management system for emergency response, etc)
• Supporting innovative projects to demonstrate cost-effective hazard mitigation to reduce risks associated with critical infrastructure (e.g., strengthening education and health infrastructure in hazard prone areas through community-based initiatives in hazard-prone areas, promoting use of traditional construction techniques for disaster-resilient housing etc)
• Learning, research, and knowledge management for current and future risks (e.g., documenting lessons from national experiences in disaster recovery and dissemination; research in management of current and emerging risks; documenting traditional coping mechanism; scientific research in climate change management and adaptation; managing the risks due to sea level rise etc)
• Developing frameworks to catalyze investment in hazard prevention, mitigation and preparedness ( e.g., National Hurricane Risk Mitigation Programme, National Earthquake Risk Mitigation Programme, National Catastrophic Risk Financing Programme, National Disaster Risk Communication Programme, etc)
• Ex-ante disaster recovery financing mechanism established in middle income countries (e.g. insurance and reinsurance, catastrophe bonds, weather derivatives, Contingent credit, reserve fund etc)

Under TRACK-III:
Accelerated Disaster Recovery in Low Income Countries
(in pipeline) This Standby Recovery Financing track, proposed to be operated through a mechanism linked to IDA, is to support disaster-stricken countries’ immediate recovery needs before medium and long term recovery programs are formulated and launched. However a low income country would be eligible for this only if pre-disaster preparedness and mitigation instruments (Track 2) have been institutionalized in the country, measured in terms of investments in risk reduction as a percentage of GDP or such other measures agreed by the partners of the Global Facility. This is being developed in close collaboration with World Bank’s IDA team and a position paper on this will be available soon for wider consultation.