Governance Structure

”By putting intelligence and money to work you can mitigate damage… But even today not everyone understands it so this group has a very important role to play.”

- James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank at the founding of the ProVention Consortium in February 2000.

ProVention is supported by a reformed governance structure which was established following an extensive governance review conducted in 2005. The governance and management structures include a Host Organisation, Secretariat, Advisory Committee, Presiding Council and ProVention Forum.

Host Organisation

ProVention is currently hosted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, an international humanitarian organisation headquartered in Geneva. The International Federation, as Host Organisation, undertakes the management of the Secretariat and responsible for administering ProVention project funds.

Advisory Committee

To oversee and support the Secretariat by providing ongoing guidance and advice on major strategic, policy and organisational decisions, the governance structure includes an Advisory Committee, comprised of representatives of the founding organisation, host organisation, donors and nominated Consortium partners. The Advisory Committee gives strategic advice and direction to the Secretariat, overseeing the implementation of the work programme and approving the annual budget. The Advisory Committee and Secretariat solicit expert technical advice from independent project reviewers to ensure high quality technical appraisal of ProVention project activities and accountability in project approval and decision making.

Presiding Council

The Consortium structures also include a Presiding Council who serve as high profile voluntary patrons of ProVention, but with no formal governance duties, and responsible for promoting the goals of ProVention among international leaders and senior policy makers. ProVention is currently in the process of reforming the Presiding Council to renew both the membership and the charge of the Council as an integral part of the ProVention Consortium structure. The new Council Members will be announced soon.

Past members of the Presiding Council have included:

  • Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary General, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations
  • Walter Fust, Director General, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
  • Enrique Iglesias, President, Inter-American Development Bank
  • Hilde F. Johnson, Minister of Development and Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway
  • Omar Kabbaj, President, African Development Bank
  • Tsuneo Katayama, Director General, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, Japan
  • Maritta Koch-Weser, President, Earth 3000
  • Jong-Wook Lee, Director General, World Health Organization
  • Mark Malloch-Brown, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
  • Markku Niskala, Secretary General, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • Judith Rodin, President, University of Pennsylvania
  • Mirta Roses Periago, Director, Pan-American Health Organization
  • Amartya Sen, Professor, Trinity College, University of Cambridge
  • James Wolfensohn, President, World Bank
  • Muhammad Yunus, Managing Director, Grameen Bank

ProVention Forum

The critical dialogue and agenda setting that has taken place in the past during ProVention meetings has been broadened and expanded to include a wider range of ProVention partner organisations as part of an annual ProVention Forum. Through the Forum, ProVention seeks to enable broader participation, identify critical gaps in disaster risk management, and generate cutting-edge ideas and catalyse collaborative initiatives in order to help drive the global risk reduction agenda The Forum dialogue directly informs the evolving ProVention work programme.