The 2015-16 El Niño event was amongst the strongest recorded since the 1950’s, resulting in exacerbated drought in Southern Africa and Southeast Asia, whilst simultaneously intensifying rainfall in parts of Eastern Africa and South America. This considerably impacted human communities and ecosystems across the Equatorial Pacific, particularly amongst low and middle-income countries.

In response, NERC and DfID developed the “Understanding the Impacts of the Current El Niño Event” research programme, with the end goal of increasing resilience to similar climate events in the future. Through fourteen individual, and four synthesis projects, this programme investigated the effects of the El Niño on livelihoods, food security, ecosystem services, disease vectors, and key infrastructure across twelve affected countries.

The Building Resilience to the Impacts of El Niño event will present the lessons learned from this large, multi-institution programme; bringing together policy makers, practitioners, and researchers to ensure these findings contribute to the development of practical approaches to building resilience to future El Niño events.

Themes
The event will feature presentations and panel discussions addressing the themes of:

Understanding the context of the 2015-16 El Niño
Practical findings and policy implications of the El Niño research programme
Approaching the concept of climate resilience in research and practice

Speakers and Panellists
Speakers and panellists will include:

Tim Wheeler, Director of Research & Innovation, NERC
Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development, Imperial College London
Katrina Brown, Professor of Social Sciences, University of Exeter
Rosalind West, Climate Science & Services Advisor, DfID
Yadvinder Malhi, Professor of Ecosystem Science, University of Oxford
Mike Morecroft, Principal Specialist Climate Change, Natural England
Piran White, Director of NERC BESS programme, University of York
Rebecca Asare, Nature Conservation Research Centre, Ghana