The Averted Disaster Award, an innovative competition that brings visibility to successful disaster-risk-mitigation interventions around the world, will announce its 2023 winners at the 11th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action. The award ceremony on day three of the conference will include a documentary film about the winners.  

Launched in 2022, the Averted Disaster Award uses counterfactual analysis to shed light on ‘what might have been’ had a risk-reduction intervention not been implemented. It seeks to recognize successful initiatives that often go unnoticed precisely because of their success.  

Prof. David Lallemant, Head of the Disaster Analytics for Society Lab at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and a founding member of the award, said: “While the news often highlights catastrophes, it doesn’t focus on the buildings that stayed standing due to earthquake-resistant building codes, the wildfires avoided due to successful forest management, or the early warning systems that saved lives in a typhoon.”  

The ceremony will be hosted by Dr Shanna McClain, Disasters Program Manager at NASA and a member of the award’s selection committee. Dr McClain said: “Since we launched in 2022, the Averted Disaster Award has served as a platform to raise global awareness of the important work of many thousands of people around the world who are saving lives and protecting property through successful disaster-risk-management interventions.”  

She added: “There are many remarkable initiatives out there that prove unequivocally that we can adapt to and manage the many global challenges we face from natural hazards and climate change. We are excited to share the 2023 winners and showcase their best practices and innovations in disaster risk management.”  

The Averted Disaster Award ceremony will take place at 16:10 on 12 October 2023 at the Global Dialogue Platform, held in Berlin, Germany, and hosted by the Anticipation Hub. Members of the winning intervention will be present at the ceremony and available to the press.  

About the Averted Disaster Award 

The Averted Disaster Award is the premier recognition of successful disaster mitigation interventions that go unnoticed precisely because of their success. In the world of disaster risk management, success means ‘nothing happens’ and, as a result, can cause policy-makers and society at large to undervalue the importance of proactive intervention. The Averted Disaster Award sheds light on successes in disaster risk management and ‘what might have been’ to recognize the outstanding work of those who invest in measures that keep our communities and world safe. 

About the Anticipation Hub  

The Anticipation Hub was launched in December 2020 as a joint initiative of the IFRC, the German Red Cross and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. Through its website, working groups and publications, the Anticipation Hub provides a space for people to learn and exchange knowledge about anticipatory action. It also hosts and convenes the annual Global Dialogue Platforms on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action, as well as the Regional Dialogue Platforms that take place in Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. As of September 2023, the Anticipation Hub has 116 partners from more than 40 countries.  

www.anticipation-hub.org  

About the 11th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action  

This year’s Global Dialogue Platform will take place from 10 to 12 October 2023, in Berlin and online. As well as hosting the Averted Disaster Award presentation ceremony, it will stage a series of strategic workshops to explore how anticipatory action can support, and play a major role in achieving, some of the global initiatives to protect people from the rising threat of hazards. These include the UN’s Early Warning for All initiative and the G7 / V20 Global Shield. Experts, practitioners and high-level government representatives will be part of these workshops to inform discussions and, with participants, guide the recommendations that arise.  

Aligned with the Anticipation Hub’s strategy, the Global Dialogue Platforms follow a people-centred approach to create shared ownership of the anticipatory action process. The events are inclusive, promoting and encouraging diversity; they also draw extensively on the different types of knowledge about anticipatory action that are generated through science, policy and practice. In 2022, the Regional and Global Dialogue Platforms brought together more than 2,000 participants from 140 countries.   

https://events.anticipation-hub.org/global-dialogue-platform-2023/about/