Patricia Valerio’s Post

Just wanted to share that the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) 2022 Annual Report is out now. Preparing the annual report is a huge, collaborative effort I'm always happy to be a (small) part of. For this edition, I worked with several colleagues from different teams in contributing pieces about: 📌 how GRADE, a methodology developed by The World Bank and supported by GFDRR, has been used in countries as diverse as Haiti, Madagascar, Tonga, and Ukraine to provide an initial estimation of physical post-disaster damage in just two weeks 📌 how a study and subsequent financial advisory services provided by the City Resilience Program informed urban resilience planning in Côte d'Ivoire 📌 how (and why) GFDRR has been addressing the disaster-conflict nexus 📌 how key publications and events in 2022, including the first ever GFDRR Partnership Days in February 2022, advanced GFDRR's analytical agenda Feel free to check out the report, which includes results stories from around the world, here: https://lnkd.in/dKfk6pqs 🙂

With the ongoing COP27 being in the news, I thought I'd share this The World Bank blog I co-authored with Henriette Mampuya on the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)'s work in ensuring that disasters won't wipe out hard-won development advances in South Asia, where almost two billion people are already being subjected to extreme weather because of climate change https://lnkd.in/dHX2ehBx 

Just thought I'd let everyone know that the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) — a multi-donor partnership that's administered by The World Bank — now has its own LinkedIn page. I've been with GFDRR for over a year now and I've been fascinated by how multifaceted its work can be. This contribution to an assessment of the damages incurred following the Russian invasion of Ukraine is just one example. If you're interested to learn more about GFDRR's work, make sure to follow the page. 

Yesterday we "graduated" from the Policy Leader Fellowship program. I really think this is the best opportunity I've gotten so far — which is funny because I found out about it from scrolling aimlessly right here on LinkedIn.  Personally, I saw it as a rare opportunity to have my own kind of renaissance in the birthplace of the Renaissance itself. There just aren't a lot of better deals out there. Alex Stubb, School of Transnational Governance director (and former prime minister of Finland), even said he wishes he had this opportunity, too. I was asked to give a speech alongside Kabanda Umar, who unlike me, is a naturally talented speaker. I don't know why I was chosen because I really do think of myself as someone who's much more comfortable writing than speaking (I started off my speech by saying that I don't know why I was asked to speak, but then Alex Stubb joked, "Your Twitter feed!" 😅) but of course I was honored to do it. I said during my little speech that, although we're not students here, graduation rites are called a "commencement" for a reason: it's supposed to be just the beginning. Graduates in Italy wear a laurel wreath after their commencement ceremony — a beautiful tradition that dates back centuries, when victorious athletes were crowned with laurels, which were a tribute to Apollo, in ancient Greece. For better or for worse, I think of myself as someone who never rests on my laurels and feels satisfied with what I've already achieved. The fellowship may have officially ended, but I definitely still have some things planned. 😅   But refusing to rest on your laurels is, I think, also a responsibility not just to yourself, but also to other people. I mentioned in my speech — and I hope this came across well because I don't think my nervous, camera-shy self delivered it effectively — that being chosen for this fellowship means that we've already had several doors open for us and we've been lucky enough for our hard work to actually matter. I quoted the late Toni Morrison, who was much more eloquent than me: "When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else."  Thanks to everyone at the European University Institute but especially the School of Transnational Governance — the PLF team (Claudio Radaelli, Evgenia (Eve) M., Alice P., and Klara Karkov), the professors, the executive education team, the alumni and careers team, the porters, and the shuttle bus drivers — who made sure that we could think and thrive in Tuscany, which is how I describe my job as a fellow to my family back in Manila.  I also want to give a shoutout to our favorite tour guide Laura Bechi, who made my time in Florence even more magical by giving me a newfound appreciation for (and a serious desire to learn more about) art history. The Renaissance, she always says, is about going beyond. That's my hope for all of us, too.

Thanks a lot to Evgenia (Eve) M., Chiara Ludovica Battistelli, and Davide Giovinazzo for giving me an opportunity to ramble about my (very non-linear) career, which I now wish I talked about in a more coherent way (I tried, though). Somehow this was harder for me to prepare for than expertise-oriented talks because I've had so many different jobs since I started working more than 10 years ago. I'm still making it up as I go along, but I really hope at least some of the things I said were useful to these very promising students. 😅

Earlier this week, my co-fellow and friend (and naturally gifted public speaker) Yasasmin Kaviratne and I had a talk on money, mobility, and migration. I proposed this session to Yasasmin because at the time I felt like there wasn't enough discussion on how the social stratification of migrants determines how they're welcomed by their destination countries. I'm glad she thought it was a good idea because I wouldn't (and couldn't) have done this talk alone.  I'm pasting here the description I came up with for the event since I think it captures what we each tried to address. Yasasmin focused on the former, while I talked about so-called privileged migration through investment schemes: "While those who are forced to leave their homes or have limited economic means are either stranded or shunned in their chosen destinations — whether through harsh treatment or hardline policies — those with greater economic and social capital have the privilege to choose which country they'd like to have citizenship or residence status in thanks to an industry composed of public and private actors that facilitate the process for them."  I also wanted to share this comic I commissioned for the talk. I found out about Brian Box Brown (a brilliant cartoonist from Philadelphia with a super cool name) through a comic he published on NPR and thought his style would be perfect for what I had in mind. I reached out to him, gave him as many facts as I could for context, and asked him to come up with a story that juxtaposes these two experiences in just two pages. In less than a day he sent me a rough pencil sketch based on the information I gave him. Shortly after I gave some minor edits and suggestions the comic was ready. Klara Karkov then kindly printed copies for me to distribute at the start of the talk. (I thought it would be better if everyone had their own copy so they wouldn't have to just read it on the screen.) Fergal Treanor, who was *amazing* at helping me and Yasasmin organize our thoughts before this event, said it was the first paper handout he's received in years and he showed it to his daughter afterwards. 😅 Anyway, here we are looking happy right before the talk (misleading because I was nervous, as always). Thanks to our friend Ucha Avsajanishvili for being the official photographer. 😊 (Sorry if the images show up awkwardly — I blame LinkedIn!)

Last Friday I had the opportunity to moderate a talk given by Nobel Prize-winning economist Bengt Holmström to my co-fellows here at the European University Institute's School of Transnational Governance.  I'm definitely not an economist — I did well enough in my economics courses in my master's program and I love doing regressions, but that's pretty much it — so I was really worried I wouldn't be able to do justice to his lecture. I'm still not sure I did, but Bengt (as he wants all of us to call him) has been so nice that his kindness was actually the highlight of this experience for me. After the talk, he wrote me an email to say that I might have underestimated my role and that my advice was "a great source of inspiration" that gave him the confidence that everything would go well (can you imagine?!).  Such an edifying experience to witness someone of his stature be so generous with his time and his words. This was just a small, private event — and on Zoom, too, because unfortunately he couldn't come to Florence to meet us — but it's definitely one of the things I'll always remember about my fellowship here.

Just had to take a photo. 😅 Anyway, I really enjoyed being part of this talk and learning more about Europe's ambitions of (and challenges to) becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. One argument I see a lot is that democracy hinders strong climate action, so I appreciate that Charleroi mayor Paul Magnette pointed out that more democratic deliberation (as opposed to more technocratic and corporatist negotiations) is needed to ensure that the transition to a climate-neutral society in the EU (and really everywhere else) doesn't leave anyone behind.  Thanks so much to Kalypso Nicolaidis, Elias Dinas, and Federica Smorto for organizing the event! I felt lucky to be there.

Hey everyone. Excited to share that I'll be a discussant of this talk on March 21 on the European Green Deal, a policy package that aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent in the world by 2050. Paul Magnette — professor of political theory at the Université libre de Bruxelles, former Belgian federal minister for climate and energy, and current mayor of Charleroi — will be the speaker.  Really looking forward to learning more from this event. It will be in a hybrid format so anyone who's interested can join online by registering here: https://lnkd.in/duZgjefX