00:00Hi, welcome back to Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris. Let's continue our conversation about
00:12the severe floods that's happening across much of South Asia and Southeast Asia this month,
00:19which have killed more than 1,750 people in Asia and displaced thousands more. Joining me to
00:27discuss the gravity of the situation is Anissa M. Ismail, who is a Regional Migration and
00:32Displacement Senior Officer at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies,
00:37IFRC. Anissa, thank you so much for being on the show with me today. There was a great new report
00:43by the IFRC titled Forced to Flee in a Changing Climate, and some of the findings and the
00:51highlighted things that I was really surprised to learn. I would ask you maybe to share with us
00:58what you think are the most critical findings from that report and what it tells you about how
01:04climate change is really shaping displacement and migration patterns within this region.
01:12The report is published in August this year, and this is actually the first time IFRC has produced
01:21a report, climate report, focused specifically on displacement. It is a crucial milestone because
01:28for the first time, we have a consolidated picture of how climate impacts are driving people across
01:36Asia Pacific to move. And having this data matters because it helps Red Cross and Red Crescent National
01:43Society and also important stakeholders such as the government to understand which communities are
01:50most affected, how often families are being displaced, and what kind of support do they need before,
01:58during, and after disaster. And although the report showcases the extensive of the um activities that have
02:06been done and implemented by the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Society across Asia Pacific, but usually
02:13there are more that can be done, right? There's a more that can be um that can be strengthened. So the report
02:20is actually compiles the evidence and data to allow us to plan better and um to strengthen areas that we
02:29have identified such as the early warning and preparedness system so that fewer families are forced to flee,
02:36more resilient, and we can recover sustainably. So in short, this report fills a critical gap. It can guide
02:43action and help protect millions of more people in the years ahead. But coming back to your question about
02:49the critical findings of the report, there are several critical findings actually that we have
02:55identified in the report but I will point it out and highlight three uh findings that I will share with
03:02with you today. Also the first one uh the first one is regarding scale. In 2024 alone in Asia Pacific, we
03:11observe about 24 million disaster displacement across Asia Pacific and this figure actually accounted
03:19for more than half of all disaster displacement for more than half of all disaster displacement in worldwide.
03:25So to put you uh to give you a further perspective on this, within even Asia Pacific region itself,
03:32there are five countries that are accounted for 91% of all disaster displacement. So the Philippines alone
03:41saw more about 9 million disaster displacement and this follows by China, India,
03:48and then afterwards Bangladesh and Afghanistan. This shows that um a concentrated small number of um
03:57countries actually burdening and share the burden of the climate impact in our region. This means that
04:04nearly all climate related displacement in Asia Pacific is happening in a country whereby that country are
04:12being hit again and again the first one regarding the scale and in relation to this secondly the report also
04:20shows uh displacement is becoming more frequent. As I mentioned communities are the countries are being hit
04:27again and again so the communities are also being hit again and again before they can fully recover. So what once
04:36like in a generation of uh flood or cyclone like in a generation of uh flood or cyclone now it occurring more
04:41frequent and in some countries every season for example a farmer in Malaysia or in Sri Lanka um they have been hit by
04:51flood for example in September and then they're being hit again by flood in October. So what it does is that it makes the
05:01displacement is not a one-off event but it's a recurring and this make the community harder to cope
05:08on this matter. Right. That's the second one. The third one, displacement is actually lasting longer.
05:16Many families they cannot return uh because their houses are destroyed or because of their
05:23farmland is waterlogged and maybe their livelihood have also been unstable. So in Bangladesh what we have
05:30observed is that this repeated cyclones and storm surges it uh destroyed puddy fields it contaminated uh
05:41fish in the ponds. So for that imagine the farmer entire harvest have been destroyed and the fishermen also
05:52lose their boats equipment. Right. So because of this they cannot simply recover within weeks if you have lost all
05:59of this. Right. So it also led to a maybe permanent loss of income making it extremely difficult to recover
06:06and to rebuild. Well that's very worrying to see these three kind of compounding effects of of a change in
06:14climate. Um Anissa talk to me about the work that um IFRC does. So if the scale of disaster is getting bigger
06:22getting worse it's becoming more frequent and uh longer displacement is taking place how then
06:29does um organizations like yours support those people who are displaced what is it that they need um
06:36as you said before during and after walk me through maybe some of the work that's some of the support
06:43that they need. So our Red Cross and Red Cross National Societies have I mentioned we implemented and we have
06:51extensive activities during the full cycle of disaster meaning we work before during and after disaster but
06:58what is really important and what we really want to prioritize and what we really want to highlight
07:03is really preparedness uh meaning we help uh helping communities stay safe before the disasters happen
07:13so um across as as a pacific there are activities that we've done for example one of the most effective
07:21uh effective approaches uh is actually acting early when we know that for example the storm or flood is
07:28coming so when the forecast shows that heavy rain or strong winds are likely what we do is that our
07:36volunteers uh our Red Cross and Red Crescent team they do have plans they will go to local communities
07:44they will provide uh warnings to them sending early warnings to answer to SMS to local radio station uh different
07:54channels and they can also go communities to communities providing this information so this early warning
08:01really helps and this means also that people are not waiting until the disaster hits they can prepare
08:09they can move to safety and protect what they value the most that's um uh the early action and early
08:16warning other than that what we also have done is that we make sure that the essential um items are
08:23placed in nearby uh in nearby areas where we know that the disaster going to hit right so uh it means that
08:31we store items like blanket mats tarpelling clean water bottles uh in our store houses in our warehouses
08:42in our Red Cross and Red Crescent branches that are spread all across the um in the country so before
08:51uh the rainy or cyclone season begin so when the floods hit so the help doesn't need to travel from
08:59far across away so it's already nearby because we have the pre-positioning stock and they save hours or
09:06even days and actually these early hours are the most critical for keeping people safe and comfortable
09:14absolutely anisa can uh can i come back to some one of the findings from the report about longer
09:20displacement i'm really curious about that because sometimes we think about displacement as temporary
09:25we think oh once the floodwaters recede people can go home to their homes but that's often not
09:32the case can you talk to me a little bit about how um sometimes vulnerabilities can be compounded
09:39through um disasters like severe floodings yes um when we talk about displacement when we talk about
09:47climate change what we really need to um be aware of and we really need to uh and what i really need to
09:56highlight is that climate change is not the stand-alone causes of people being displaced whether it's a
10:04temporary or permanent so when what happened is that climate change is basically uh when it interacts
10:15with the pre-existing vulnerabilities such as when people are poor when you have a weak infrastructure of
10:22the houses when you don't even have a really stable livelihood or income what it does is that this
10:30climate change it basically amplifies and deepens the pre-existing vulnerabilities and this is the
10:37reason why some displacement can be temporary or some displacement can be a longer term because if the
10:44area or if the context of the country have already have conflict already have um economic crisis climate change
10:54will amplify and deepens and this can really react uh and the consequences can be far more longer uh for the
11:03affected population all right so what message do you have for our audience today for um in terms of
11:10preparedness as you you mentioned a bit earlier but also in supporting the many people are our fellow
11:16countrymen and even our our country neighbors um in facing some of these displacement risks um and extreme uh
11:26weather events what i really want to um really stress out is that we not always frame uh climate related
11:37displacement as a climate displacement we always think as you mentioned this is temporary evacuation but even
11:45though we say that is a temporary what we need to uh understand as i mentioned earlier for example in my
11:52home state of perak we in larut matang and selama what i hope what we have observed that they have flood
11:58in um in september and they have flood again coming to november uh to december so what we have is the repeated
12:06nature of uh displacement and this what makes it severe so even though it's temporary it will it makes
12:15it severe because people don't have less time to recover less time to restore income and less time
12:22to also prepare emotionally and financially and because of this the emotional cost and financial
12:29accumulate and this put pressure so when families are able to return home they may not recover fully so
12:38they able to return home yes but they may not recover fully so we have to really realize about
12:44this uh fact that even though whether even though it's temporary it now is becoming repeated and the
12:52consequences are severe as well and whether it's a so now whether it's a temporary or a longer term so
12:59we need to acknowledge this fact we need to be more prepared and for in for ifrc we call for a stronger
13:07um financial for the early action the preparedness and support from the government and other relevant
13:15stakeholders right anisa thank you so much for speaking with me anisa m ismail there from ifrc wrapping
13:22up this episode of consider this i'm melissa idris signing off for the evening thank you so much for
13:27for watching and good night
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