Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response

This report is a joint product of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University and NASA (as the COMPAS project), and the United Nations Development Programme Disaster Risk Management Programme in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The UNDP DRM programme in Cox’s Bazar is operating with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the European Commission Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) and technical support from SDC and MSB (Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency).

The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of (IRI) at Columbia University and NASA (as the COMPAS project), the European Commission Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), MSB (Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency), or the Executive Board of the UNDP or the government they represent.

The boundaries, colours, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgement on the part of UNDP concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.

Copyright © United Nations Development Programme, Bangladesh Country office, IDB Bhaban, E/8 Begum Rokeya Sharani, Sher-E-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Cover photo: Cathrine Haarsaker, UNDP Other photos: Eno Jonathan Ovuorho, UNDP Photo credit: UNDP Citation: International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University and NASA (as the COMPAS project), and United Nations Development Programme, 2019. Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains.

August 2019

PAG E 0 1

I N T R O D U CT I O N

In response to periodic persecution and violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, an estimated 901,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, with more than 730,000 arriving as part of the influx following the August 2017 outbreak of violence. The location of the Rohingya refugee camps is highly exposed to disastrous impacts from natural hazards. Unlike the majority of Bangladesh, the terrain of Cox’s Bazar is hilly, with sandy slopes and narrow valleys vulnerable to landslides and flash flooding triggered by rainfall. Living in fragile household shelters in this landscape and accessing services and relief points via unpaved paths, staircases and bamboo bridges, refugees in the camps of Cox’s Bazar are therefore directly exposed to natural hazards and vulnerable to asset loss and disruptions in camp services.

In this context, having reliable climate and weather-related risk information is critical to support humanitarian decision-making and effective response to support affected refugee men, women, boys and girls.

The present report aims to present lessons learnt on use of climate and weather-related risk information in decision-making, drawing on the experiences of regular humanitarian staff directly involved in coordinating response to the heavy monsoon rains in the first two weeks of July 2019.

Integration of disaster risk management into the refugee response and camp management is an ongoing process where humanitarian stakeholders are adapting methods and approaches to the evolving conditions in the refugee camps and in the host communities. To enable collective and informed action, by the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) and its sectors (Inter-Agency Standing Committee cluster equivalents), the Emergency Preparedness Working Group and the Natural Hazards Task Force mobilize humanitarian agency staff with particular expertise to work on preparedness planning and hazard mapping. In addition, ad hoc lessons learnt discussions involving heads of agencies and sector coordinators capture system-wide learning. The present report adds to the body of knowledge by focusing on the topic of monsoon preparedness response.

The report is based on discussions and exercises in the workshop “Use of Weather and Climate Information in the Rohingya Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains” organized on 5th August 2019.

The objective of the workshop was “To map weather and climate information needs and barriers faced by stakeholders in the Rohingya response, identify opportunities for linking available information to needs, and extract lessons from the response to the 3rd – 12th July 2019 rains”. Participants included 35 UN and I/NGO staff coordinating response to monsoon-related incidents.

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 0 2

Summary of most-critical preparedness and response actions identified by respondents participating in the workshop August 5th 2019: Pre-Seasonal

       

Risk assessment of settlement and facilities Stabilize slopes and improve drains to reduce risk Repair facilities Update agency and camp contingency plan and test through drills Analyze resource availability Train and drill staff and voluntreers Communicate with communities Review lessons learnt from last year

Forecast for three days of rain

       

Share information Monitor forecast and situation reports Go through internal checklists and plans Communicate with communities Mobilize existing community volunteers and prepare to deploy emergency teams Preposition materials and conduct emergency repairs Establish Emergency Operations Centre Facilitate temporary relocations

During heavy rainfall event

       

Monitor needs assessment, forecast and situation reports Facilitate temporary relocations Deploy emergency response teams Distribute food and shelter items Monitor Protection needs Surge additional Capacity on hotlines Set up temporary medical camps Communicate with communities

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 0 3 ACT I O N S , D E C I S I O N S A N D Q U E S T I O N S AT VA R I O U S S TAG E S O F M O N S O O N P R E PA R E D N E S S A N D R E S P O N S E

Participants in the August 5th, 2019 workshop were divided into five groups which worked on questions related to actions, decisions and questions before the monsoon season, when rain is forecast, and during the heavy monsoon rains of the first two weeks of July 2019. The actions and information needs identified by the participants are presented below, together with analysis of context and corresponding decisions.

Decisions and questions prior to the rainy season The workshop participants identified the following preparedness actions which are critical to implement prior to the summer and monsoon seasons beginning in April lasting till October:

Critical preparedness actions reported by the workshop participants

Corresponding decisions

Hazard mapping, risk assessment and identification of facilities at risk

Which hazards to map and which risks to consider; which facilities and infrastructure to consider

Structural disaster risk reduction to maintain access

Which facilities and infrastructure to prioritize for repair and strengthening; which slopes, canals, rivers and drains to prioritize

Update business continuity plan and contingency plans

Which hazards and risks to consider and address in plans

Analyse available resources

Whether to increase logistics and human resource capacity before the season; how much stock to procure and preposition; which risks to consider in supply chain management; whether to prepare for surging of human resource during the season

Train and drill regular staff, emergency response teams and volunteers

How many emergency response team members and volunteers to train; what topics and skills to cover in their training

Communicate with the communities

What content to include in IEC materials; which questions to ask communities

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 0 4 ACT I O N S , D E C I S I O N S A N D Q U E S T I O N S AT VA R I O U S S TAG E S O F M O N S O O N P R E PA R E D N E S S A N D R E S P O N S E

The workshop participants reported on prior to monsoon season, the following questions were asked:

What has the past monsoon impact been?

Looking at experience from the 2018 monsoon as a whole gives responders an idea of duration and impacts on refugees and operational conditions.

How many refugees are living in at-risk areas, and what will be the impact of the coming monsoon?

A large number of agencies and organizations with different mandates are participating in the Rohingya refugee response. When planning for monsoon response, each agency and organization needs information to determine what will be the likely needs on their target population, in their particular sector, and in their geographical area of operation.

What is the most likely impact of the upcoming monsoon?

Agencies and organizations must plan their monsoon-time operations, pipelines as well as human resource capacity against the most likely and worst-case scenarios. Having evidence-based estimations of impact on people, shelters, and infrastructure improves the quality of individual and common contingency plans.

Is our capacity adequate to respond to the impact?

Effective response to monsoon impacts requires adequate staffing to be able to maintain regular services and respond to additional caseloads caused by weather impacts, adequate stocks of items for distribution, repair of facilities, and service implementation, and logistics to replenish.

What are other actors doing?

With almost daily weather- and climate- related incidents in the Rohingya refugee camps between April and October, summer and monsoon response is resource-intensive and there is no “no-risk� grace period between the summer cyclone season and the monsoon, nor between the monsoon and the autumn cyclone season, to replenish stocks and staff.

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 0 5 ACT I O N S , D E C I S I O N S A N D Q U E S T I O N S AT VA R I O U S S TAG E S O F M O N S O O N P R E PA R E D N E S S A N D R E S P O N S E

Decision and questions when there is a forecast for three days of rain Looking at the case of a weather forecast warning of three days of rain commencing the next day, early in the monsoon season, the workshop participants identified the following critical early actions:

Critical short-term preparedness actions reported by the workshop participants

Corresponding decisions

Share information

Monitor forecast and situation reports

Go through internal checklists and plans

Communicate with communities

What information and advice to communicate to the communities; which questions to ask communities

Mobilize existing community volunteers and prepare to deploy emergency teams

How many volunteers and emergency team members to deploy; whether to surge in additional capacity just-in-case

Preposition materials/items and conduct emergency repairs

Where and how much materials/items to preposition; which infrastructure/facilities to prioritize for emergency repairs

Establish Emergency Operations Centre

What information to utilize for Emergency Operations Centre analysis and decisions

Facilitate temporary relocations

Who to prioritize for temporary relocation

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 0 6 ACT I O N S , D E C I S I O N S A N D Q U E S T I O N S AT VA R I O U S S TAG E S O F M O N S O O N P R E PA R E D N E S S A N D R E S P O N S E

The workshop participants identified the following questions which were asked while reacting to the information indicating increased risk of heavy rainfall:

How much rain is forecast and what is the probability of landslides and flash flood?

Comparing rainfall data from the Geological Survey of Bangladesh automatic rain gauges in the Rohingya refugee camps against the Site Management sector’s daily incidents reports from 2018 and 2019 have shown that there is a close correlation between the number of people affected by rainfall-related hazards per day and the amount of rainfall per day. While there have been concerns in the past that multiple days of rain could dramatically increase the number of landslides due to soil moisture saturation, data collected – including the July 2019 rains – indicates that this is not the case. In other words: if it rains for four days in a row in one week there will be more landslides than in a week where it only rains three days, but there will not necessarily be a dramatic spike on the fourth consecutive day.

Is there a risk of winds as well?

The majority of facilities and household shelters within the Rohingya camps are built out of fragile bamboo and tarpaulin, and are consequently highly vulnerable to wind gusts and squalls that can occur during monsoon depressions. On days when monsoon rains are accompanied by winds, the number of affected people per day has been seen to rise dramatically. According to the Site Management sector’s daily incidents report, a total of 3,179 household shelters were damaged, with 2,704 partially damaged and 475 totally damaged by wind and rain in the first two weeks of July 2019 and 3,118 shelters were damaged during the entire 2018 monsoon season.

Is there a high tide or storm surge risk as well?

One of the Rohingya refugee camps – camp 23, Shamlapur – is located at low elevation on the west coast of the Teknaf peninsula, next to a river outlet. When heavy rainfall coincides with high tide, the flow and pressure from the high tide impedes the discharge of the river water into the sea, leading to flooding in camp 23. While storm surge is associated with tropical storms and cyclones, monsoon depressions in the Bay of Bengal can cause low wind-driven “surges” of salt water onto land. For example, two days after the workshop, 7th August 2019, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department issued a warning message stating that an 1-2 feet surge above astronomical high tide could occur due to a deep depression in the Bay of Bengal.

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 0 7 ACT I O N S , D E C I S I O N S A N D Q U E S T I O N S AT VA R I O U S S TAG E S O F M O N S O O N P R E PA R E D N E S S A N D R E S P O N S E

Decisions and questions during heavy rainfall events such as July 2019 The workshop participants identified the following preparedness actions which are critical during heavy rainfall events. The specific case discussed was the heavy rainfalls during the first two weeks of July 2019, when about 1,000 mm of rain fell during a period of 14 days of consecutive rains – with a maximum rain intensity of 364 mm in 24h reached in the morning of the 4th July that affected a total of 26,432 people in the Rohingya refugee camps and 300,900 people in the rest of Cox’s Bazar district.

Discussing the events of those two weeks, the workshop participants identified the following critical response actions made:

Critical response actions during the July 2019 heavy rains, reported by the workshop participants

Corresponding decisions

Monitor needs assessment, forecast and situation reports

Which sources of information to trust and utilize

Facilitate temporary relocations

Who to prioritize for temporary relocation

Deploy emergency response teams

How many emergency response teams to deploy; where to deploy them

Distribution of food and shelter items

What items to distribute, where and to whom

Monitoring Protection needs

Where to deploy Protection Emergency Response Units (PERU) and how many to deploy

Surge capacity on hotlines

How many additional staff to surge and for how long

Set up temporary medical camps

How many temporary medical camps to set up and where

Communicate with communities

What information and advice to communicate to the communities; which questions to ask communities

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 0 8 ACT I O N S , D E C I S I O N S A N D Q U E S T I O N S AT VA R I O U S S TAG E S O F M O N S O O N P R E PA R E D N E S S A N D R E S P O N S E

The workshop participants identified the following questions which were asked while responding:

How many people are affected, what are their needs and where are they?

The most critical question to determine response, agencies and organizations initially look for needs assessment and data on the affected population. Within the Rohingya refugee response, the Site Management and Site Development sector has set up a mechanism of Daily Incident Reporting to enable provision of this.

Which areas are affected and what is the extent of the floods and landslides?

If a needs assessment activity has not yet taken place, responding agencies and organizations can use information about how large the affected areas are to estimate caseload and type of support needed. They also need to know where to deploy response and distribution teams and what kind of conditions they may face.

How much has it rained so far?

If information on current rainfall can be compared against past events, decision-makers believe they can make better estimate impacts if needs assessments or logistics updates are not yet available. However, as of August 2019, actual analysis of past rainfall event impacts on the Rohingya camps available to response decision-makers is still limited.

Will it keep raining and how much?

A question that emerged very strongly in the July 2019 rains compared to previous rainfall events in the Rohingya refugee camps, was how much longer the rains (both heavy rainfall and minor to moderate rainfall) would continue. While the number of incidents did not rise dramatically as time went on and existing staff and volunteers were able to deliver response throughout the period, a larger-than-expected impact of the continuous rain was the build-up of sand and silt in drains and canals. With even low-intensity rain continuously carrying sand and soil into the drains and valley bottoms for almost two weeks, the drainage of rainwater was impeded. The resulting water-logging (defined here as stagnant water after heavy rainfall locally – similar to international definitions of flash flood impact) kept flood-affected families temporarily displaced for longer, prevented repairs of damaged pathways, and contributed to damage and erosion around overflowing drains.

Is the weather affecting access and infrastructure?

In order to respond in the Rohingya camps, most agencies and organisations are dependent on a) road access from Cox’s Bazar town to the Rohingya refugee camps in Ukhia and Teknaf sub-districts; and b) functional roads and pathways within the Rohingya refugee camps. During heavy rainfall, small landslides may occur along both the coastal and inland roads from Cox’s Bazar town to Ukhia, while the temporary “Beach Road” being used in 2019 may be cut off by the high tide and any sea surge caused by depression in the Bay of Bengal. Within Ukhia and Teknaf, portions of the main roads are liable to flash flooding and water-logging. Within the Rohingya refugee camps, heavy rainfall can cause slope failure affected roads, pathways and bridges, while water-logging can render pathways flooded.

Who else is responding?

Knowing who else is responding enables agencies and organizations to prioritize use of resources and avoid duplication.

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 0 9 ACT I O N S , D E C I S I O N S A N D Q U E S T I O N S AT VA R I O U S S TAG E S O F M O N S O O N P R E PA R E D N E S S A N D R E S P O N S E WHICH SOURCES OF INFORMATION ARE CURRENTLY USED AND TRUSTED? A common theme throughout the different stages of the workshop was “which sources of information do you use and do you trust them?” The table below summarizes the main sources of information named by participants, with explanatory comments.

TYPE OF INFORMATION

SOURCE

COMMENT

Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD)

The national meteorological department was by far named most often by participants as a trusted source of weather information

ISCG

After BMD, ISCG was named by most workshop participants as a trusted source of weather information. ISCG practices has varied over time, but currently the ISCG secretariat forwards Heavy Rainfall Warnings and snapshots from the BMD 3-day forecast

Windy.com

The private platform Windy.com is the most widely used private platform used for weather information, having been named as the “back-up” source in the 2018 Monsoon contingency plan

Indian Meteorological Department

Hosting the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre for Tropical Cyclones over the North Indian Ocean, information from the Indian met department is also utilized by some for monsoon

Newspapers and media

Some participants noted that they get their weather information from national newspapers and the media

ISCG Natural Hazards TF

The Landslide Susceptibility and Flood maps produced by the ISCG Natural Hazards Task Force were named by many as their source

Agency maps

Several participants named specific agency maps, which mainly appear to be agency-verified versions of the ISCG Natural Hazards Task Force maps

Community risk mapping

In many camps, community members have been supported to map hazards and risk, or risk mapping has been done together by the community and Site Management partners. It is unclear whether these are cross-referenced against science-based maps

Site Management Incident Reporting

The daily Site Management Incident reporting, sent out every evening, was the primary source of information on affected population and impacts named by the participants

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 1 0

SIDE EVENT LANDSLIDE SUSCEPTIBILITY MODELS DISCUSSION AND FIELD VISIT COMPAS team member and ISCG Natural Hazards Task Force members discussing landslide model

As a side meeting to the main workshop, a subgroup of ISCG Natural Hazards Task Force met with the COMPAS team member working on the landslide models currently used by ISCG for its common landslide susceptibility map. The discussion was attended by representatives from IOM, UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF, REACH, MOAS, iMMAP, SMSD, and UNDP. The objective of the discussion was to improve the NatHaz Task Force understanding of the COMPAS landslide susceptibility and dynamic models and define a roadmap for future development, such as estimating the landslide severity, testing a building-based landslide susceptibility map or develop multi-temporal models to assess how changing development affect landslide susceptibility.

The side discussion was complemented by a field visit the next day to the Rohingya camps with UNDP, IOM, UNHCR, and ISCG.

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 1 1 R E C O M M E N DAT I O N S

Following the phase by phase review of actions and information used, the workshop participants crowdsourced and rated suggestions for most important next steps to improve response further. The main recommendations are summarized below: Involve and empower the refugees in monsoon planning, response, and lessons learnt.

There was broad agreement among the participants that as the people living with the risk and as the first responders to any incident, the involvement of refugee men, women, girls and boys should be further increased, and refugees empowered to participate in monsoon preparedness planning, response and lessons learnt at all levels. Climate and risk information should be provided to the refugees in ways that they can understand and act upon, and their experiences and suggestions should be utilized by planners and responders. To enable this, understanding the risk perceptions, information needs, and trusted channels of information for the Rohingya refugees – including how they perceive definitions of certain natural hazard terms (such as ‘flood’) which may be different in Cox’s Bazar compared to their previous home – will be critical.

Analyse weather impacts and risk-related information and provide advice in language and formats that can be understood by anyone.

The workshop participants reported using a number of different weather and hazard products, often several at the same time. Part of the reason for this appears to be that weather information is not always presented in language or graphics that are user-friendly, and responders consult multiple sources to increase their understanding. The responders participating in the workshop recommended that weather forecasts should be presented in simple language and paired with descriptions of likely impacts (e.g. risk scenarios) in the camps, based on previous events. This will make it easier for them to make decisions and take effective action during heavy rainfall events.

Establish a sustainable, accessible decision support system available to decision-makers in Cox’s Bazar town and at field level to enable effective action.

While there are ISCG, sector and camp monsoon preparedness plans, as well as climate, risk and weather information and products, available to decision-makers and responders, this information is currently dispersed between different platforms, such as the BMD website and the various sub-pages of the Humanitarian Response. info pages. These locations are not always interlinked, even within the HR.info domain. These online platforms are also less accessible to decision-makers and coordinators in the field, who are working off cell phones rather than on laptops. Establishing a decision support system linking critical forecast information, impact and needs assessment data and pre-identified response actions can help decision-makers make better decisions, more quickly. Workshop participants suggested a corresponding app. In the absence of a comprehensive decision support system, the coordination secretariat and sector should ensure that protocols for communication of forecasts, risk and impact information, needs assessment data, and sector-recommended actions are in place.

Invest in drainage infrastructure to minimize flash flooding, prevent water-logging and minimize attendant hazards.

The importance of maintaining road access to enable response was demonstrated during the 2018 monsoon and confirmed in 2019; additionally, the sustained July 2019 rains powerfully demonstrated the importance of adequate drainage infrastructure and maintenance thereof. Water logging due to lack of drainage not only keeps affected households displaced, but also increases risks related to drowning, diarrheal outbreak and mosquito breeding.

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 1 2 R E C O M M E N DAT I O N S

Based on the workshop and analysis, the workshop organizers would also like to make a few additional recommendations: Response staff must be made aware of sector and camp monsoon plans and provide opportunities to practice their role in coordination with other actors.

Some of the suggestions made by workshop participants for next steps were identical to initiatives and actions that are already ongoing, revealing that not all actors’ staff are equally well-informed about camp level contingency plans and the sectors’ monsoon response standards. Many participants also called for more extensive drilling of plans to ensure coordination and effective response during heavy rainfall events. In 2019, Site Management partners and Camp in Charges to update and drill their camp-level contingency plans, providing opportunities for agencies and organizations to engage and ensure that their area- and camp-level staff are well aware of their roles and responsibilities.

Sector and camp level partners should work together to identify their hazard, climate and weather information needs, and communicate these to natural hazard and risk product stakeholders.

Different groups of response actors have different information needs, depending on their geographic and thematic area of operations. Needs may even vary within the same organization or agency, depending on whether the person defining the need is at Cox’s Bazar level or at camp level. Stakeholders involved in modelling and mapping hazards and risks can anticipate some user needs when they develop products such as maps and forecasts, but not all. While climate and weather (including geophysical) services for specific users and sectors, their existence does not define the appropriateness of use for certain contexts – such as the Rohingya response. In some cases, taking a particular service or map product ‘off the shelf’ to consider it fit for use for all functions within a humanitarian response could lead to the incorrect perception of trusting and using valuable information. Unless the information needs are articulated and communicated by the responders themselves, the hazard, risk, weather and climate products may not incorporate critical factors or be presented at the right level for operational use.

Hazard and risk product stakeholders should as far as possible test field-identified risk drivers and rescale models to camp-by-camp outputs including buildings.

Over time, response stakeholders have identified certain possible risk drivers within the camps which can be geographically mapped and be fed into susceptibility modelling and risk assessment to see if model performance improves. These include buildings on tops and bases of slopes latrines and the area around them, as well as topographic metrics such as curvature and edge effects. This data could be leveraged to explore value of certain types of risk models. If the model performance improves, resulting hazard maps generated can be regarded with higher confidence – although the nature of the Rohingya camps settlements will always require ground level verification. To make resulting maps and other products more immediately relevant to monsoon response stakeholders, hazard and risk products stakeholders should also – where possible – rescale their models to camp level.

Making use of existing climate and risk information and articulating information needs is a skill-set, and humanitarian decision-makers at Cox’s Bazar and field level should be supported to develop that skill set further.

For example, skill building related to learning how to identify what available risk information and to understand how to facilitate discussions on determining appropriateness of use, and to identify if any specific questions currently being asked in by stakeholders could be addressed by the available risk information. This would include understanding processes on how to convene relevant stakeholders, recognize mandates (local, national, regional, global) related to dissemination of risk information and further, acknowledgement of potential benefits and challenges to integrating available and potentially available data within decision making processes and protocols.

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 1 3

DEPARTMENTS, AGENCIES, AND ORGANIZATIONS REPRESENTED IN THE WORKSHOP Ministry of Women and Children Affairs Bangladesh Red Crescent Society German Red Cross American Red Cross IOM UNDP UNHCR WFP WHO ISCG IOM Needs and Population Monitoring Site Maintenance Engineering Project ACTED ADRA

BRAC CEHRFD CNRS Coast Trust Friendship International Rescue Committee Mercy Corps Norwegian Church Aid Relief International Save the Children World Vision ECHO Malaysian Field Hospital

SECONDARY SOURCES ISCG Natural Hazard Risk Mapping - Summary Report & Data Request Form ISCG Monsoon Response Plan Site Management Sector Monsoon Preparedness Plan ISCG Monsoon Updates

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 1 4

EXISTING PRODUCTS AND RESOURCES FOR DECISION-MAKERS Bangladesh Meteorological Department Products

Daily Forecast and Rainfall from last 24 Hours http://bmd.gov.bd/p/Weather-Forecast/

Weather Alerts for next 3 days http://bmd.gov.bd/link/nwp- click Ă lerts

Cyclone Special Weather Bulletin http://bmd.gov.bd/p/Special-Weather-Bulletin/

Heavy Rainfall Warning http://bmd.gov.bd/p/Heavy-Rainfall-Warning-153/

Marine Warning http://bmd.gov.bd/p/Marine-Warning-156/

Bangladesh Meteorological Department App Google Play Store

Telephone Hotline (Bangla only) +88029135742; +88029141437

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 1 5

EXISTING PRODUCTS AND RESOURCES FOR DECISION-MAKERS ISCG Monsoon and Disaster Risk Management

ISCG Natural Hazard Mapping Summary Report & Data Request Form https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/bangladesh/ document/coxs-bazar-natural-hazard-risk-mapping-summary-report-datarequest

ISCG Monsoon Response Plan https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/bangladesh/ document/monsoon-response-plan-2019-moderate-i-coxs-bazar

Site Management Sector Monsoon Preparedness Plan https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/node/185616

Site Management Daily Incident Reports https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/bangladesh/campcoordination-and-camp management/documents/themes/other/documenttype/analysis-report

Site Management Daily Incident Map http://iom.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html? id=8553f37b783741d5959ca67f020650d4

ISCG Monsoon Updates https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/bangladesh/ emergency-preparedness-and-response-taskforce

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 1 6 Annex 1: Connecting Earth Observations to Decision Makers for Preparedness Actions Connecting Earth Observations to Decision Makers for Preparedness Actions (COMPAS) is a NASA-funded project to explore the intersection of climate-sensitive decision making in refugee camps and earth observations. COMPAS is led by an inter-disciplinary team of researchers from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University, NASA, and the University of Chicago (COMPAS Core Team). An Advisory Board of key personnel from Bangladeshi NGOs, and cross-disciplinary researchers from University of Oregon, University of Washington, and Northwestern University support the COMPAS Core Team.

COMPAS is currently working with decision makers in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, including the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), to support weather and climate-sensitive decision making for disaster preparedness in Rohingya refugee camps.

COMPAS aims to provide an opportunity for decision makers in the refugee camps to coordinate with scientists - and climate and geophysical data - to support taking specific actions. COMPAS seeks to embed appropriate climate information into decision-making processes through user-centric, participatory tools and processes to enhance the capacity of decision makers to better assess disaster risk using Earth observations. These tools allow for the identification of specific climate sensitive questions and for the systematic outlining of the associated decision-making process.

Decision Making Flowcharts (DMF) The primary mechanism to improve the process of identifying climate-sensitive questions and integrate earth observations into decision making is the Decision Making Flowchart.

The Decision Making Flowchart provides three functions (more use-cases may arise): 1) A discussion tool for education, translation and information about climate-sensitive decision-making; 2) A diagnostic tool used to identify climate-sensitive questions and the associated decision-making processes of the humanitarian and development sector; and 3) A forum for querying relevant data in developing a climate service, climate data tool or interface.

1. Date

6a. Existing geophysical / 6b. Source of earth data observation (generator/ information disseminator) used

7.

Complementary/ supplementary updated geophysical information

6c.

Justification

Yes

Yes

No 2.

Decision Maker

3a.

Question

3b.

Decision

Action A Action B

4. Underlying factors (assumptions, risks, opportunities)

8. updated decision

No Action A Action B

5. Constraints and tolerance to uncertainty

Contact mbraun@iri.columbia.edu and andrewk@iri.columbia.edu for more information on COMPAS

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

PAG E 1 7

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The UNDP, International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University and NASA teams extend their appreciation for reviewing the draft report to workshop participants from IOM Needs and Population Monitoring, and International Rescue Committee.

With gratitude for the support of NASA, SDC and ECHO which has enabled the workshops and the production of this report.

Use of Climate and Risk Information in the Rohingya Refugee Response: Lessons from the July 2019 Rains

The UNDP DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND RECOVERY MANDATE Nearly half of the countries where UNDP works are prone to conflict, disasters, political instability and economic shocks. UNDP assists countries that are addressing sudden and slow-onset events that destabilize economies and communities by supporting their governments as they move out of the crisis response phase and into the planning and implementation of longer-term recovery activities.

UNDP’s mandate to conduct operations activities in disaster mitigation, prevention and preparedness was laid out by the United Nations General Assembly in 1997 and an additional mandate to ensure inter-agency recovery preparedness was added by the United National Emergency Relief Coordinator in 2006. Within the scope of these mandates, UNDP has provided sound leadership in the field of disaster risk reduction and recovery for many years, which includes leadership in assessment, planning, programming, coordination and capacity building.

UNDP champions the need to credibly address Early Recovery in humanitarian contexts and chairs the Cluster Working Group on Early Recovery. In Bangladesh, UNDP chairs the standing national Early Recovery cluster with Government and co-chairs the Shelter cluster with IFRC. In Bangladesh, UNDP is a long-standing partner of the Government of Bangladesh in implementing comprehensive disaster management and recovery programming. Prior UNDP disaster risk management activities in Cox’s Bazar include disaster preparedness planning, flash flood and cyclone risk reduction, community-based landslide risk management, and cyclone and flash flood shelter recovery.

In the Rohingya Crisis response, UNDP serves as technical advisor on disaster risk, preparedness and risk reduction to the ISCG and the humanitarian community. As part of its Cox’s Bazar Crisis Response Office, UNDP implements the Disaster Risk Management in Cox’s Bazar Programme with support from European Commission (ECHO) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and technical support from RedR Australia and MSB (the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency).

Copyright © United Nations Development Programme, Bangladesh Country office, IDB Bhaban, E/8 Begum Rokeya Sharani, Sher-E-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

For more information, please contact: Disaster Risk Management in Cox’s Bazar project UNDP Bangladesh – Cox’s Bazar Crisis Response Office Hotel Shaibal, 2nd Floor, Motel Road Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh