Highlights

Thanks to the Sharique project, women are elected to the Union Parishads office – the lowest administrative unit in Bangladesh. They are increasingly well-informed and politically savvy.

With the ratification of the Paris agreement the focus needs to shift to building implementation capacities in the countries most at risk from climate change such as Mali.

The wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada in May 2016 consumed more than 2,400 structures and nearly 600,000 hectares of forest. Considered as Canada’s costliest disaster, it was a case showing the need to have proactive (and not reactive) disaster risk management measures in place –fire risk maps for ensuring safe evacuation in fire prone areas or designating the areas as unsafe for human habitation.

Management and leadership skills can and should be consciously trained, and prevailing gender patterns must be actively countered.

The worst torrential floods in over 120 years! 90,000 Bosnians displaced and more than 40 dead! The most likely and indeed justified response to such disasters is saving lives and supporting short-term recovery efforts.