A knowledge and capacity building concept for reducing vulnerabilities from Glacier Lake Outburst Floods in Central Asia.

Central Asia is facing important challenges to coping with the adverse effects of climate change. Within the Glacier Lake Outburst Floods in Central Asia (GLOFCA) Project, funded by the Adaptation Fund (AF), UNESCO and the university of Zurich, in strong collaboration with numerous local partners, aim at reducing vulnerabilities of populations in the Central Asia region from glacier lake outburst floods. The project is divided into five components: i) strengthening capacity to monitor and assess glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF) hazard, ii) strengthening national and regional policies and approaches to address the needs of vulnerable communities, iii) designing and launching tailored early warning systems (EWS) and risk reduction measures, iv) implementing targeted demonstration projects and defining best practices, and, finally, v) facilitating knowledge exchange, stakeholder engagement, and communication. The fifth component cuts across all others, and across the full 5 year project duration, recognising capacity building as being essential to the harmonious and sustainable outcome of the project.

The core of the Knowledge and Capacity Building Concept (component five) seeks to be a well-rounded education and training programme tailored for communities, stakeholders, scientists, and universities. The essential aim of this effort is to set the basis for institutionalising the project activities, learnings and successes of the project, and ultimately enabling autonomous sustainability and scaling-up of the project by local authorities and communities. At the onset of the project, a needs assessment was undertaken via a questionnaire shared with key stakeholders. Based on results of this survey, local expectations and requirements were clearly identified. State-of-the-art methodologies will be trained, offering an insight into both licensed and open-source software to assist risk assessment and modelling. Ideally, novel methodologies will be developed and established as regional best practices. The sustainability of the capacity building outcomes is key and this is why an important focus will be dedicated to the coordination between the different stakeholders and a teach-the-teachers module. All capacity building material and project-specific output will be exchanged via a web-based knowledge platform, with information regularly communicated through classical and social media. All the activities will be organised in a blended format, using tools such as webinars, distance-learning modules, as well as in-presence classes, workshops and summer schools. Through targeted and timely interventions, the GLOFCA project will help strengthen key institutions, build community resilience, and establish the next generation of hazard and risk management specialists, with the skills needed to support sustainable disaster risk reduction in Central Asia.