Francis Ghesquire, GFDRR, at AusAID

Francis Ghesquiere, Manager of the World Bank's Disaster Risk Management Practice Group and Head of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) Secretariat, visited AusAID, Canberra on September 27, 2012. Mr. Ghesquiere shared his experience of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR) in different country and regional contexts and explained its place in the current debate on how to build resilience to natural hazards and other shocks. He also discussed other trends in the DRR space such as risk modelling, disaster risk financing and links to social protection. GFDRR is active in many countries of key interest to the Australian aid program: Indonesia, Vanuatu, the Philippines, Mongolia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Horn of Africa and West Africa, and the Caribbean and Latin America. It is now developing an Islamic strategy that will see its resources and operations expand in the Muslim world.