Noelle O'Brien

Noelle is the Chief of the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Thematic Group concurrently Director, of the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Division of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department of ADB. Previously, Noelle was a Principal Climate Change Specialist for the Pacific region and has worked on expanding ADB’s work on mitigation investments, scaling up adaptation investments in the 14 Pacific member countries, and raising climate finance.

Ian Wood

 As Team Leader and Climate Change Specialist to ADB’s Knowledge Support and Technical Assistance (KSTA) Project on Strengthening Integrated Flood Risk Management (TA 9634-REG), Ian Wood draws on 35 years of experience working in the water resources and flood management sectors, and over half of this experience has been in southeast Asia.

Climate Change: The Politics of Action and Finance

Tracking and reporting financial flows is needed to help measure the effectiveness of climate actions. This also helps in building trust and accountability and to monitor trends and progress. In this presentation, Pretty Bhandari, ADB’s Director for Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, talks about political economy and climate change, climate finance architecture, and the climate action taken by ADB.

Nadeem Ahmed

Retired Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed is responsible for enhancing Pakistan’s risk resilience against natural disasters and climate change impacts. He has extensive experience in the military, development sector (especially disaster risk management) and petroleum industry. He has managed large-scale natural disasters and complex emergencies through all its phases: from pre-disaster to post-disaster stage. 

Financing of Water Programmes in the Netherlands

The Netherlands has long been challenged by severe flooding because half of the country is below sea-level and three major rivers converge in it. To protect the country from floods, the government began building the "Delta Works" in 1954. Its final piece, the Maeslant storm surge barrier, was completed in 1997. In 2008, it employed a new approach in flood protection. This presentation shares the capital expenditures needed to build the infrastructure under this new approach and how they were financed.

Flood Protection Programme

The Netherlands gives high priority to flood protection. Its regional water authorities and Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, through the Rijkswaterstaat, work together to implement the Dutch Flood Protection Program. It currently runs 79 state-of-the-art projects and seven innovation programs.

Infrastructure and Inclusive Sustainable Development in Chile

Sustainable infrastructure development in Chile is in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and involves the participation of public, private, and civil society actors. While social evaluation of projects should be complemented by disaster risk assessment, the creation of sustainable and resilient public infrastructure requires the implementation of management strategies on disaster risk reduction.