Effective decision-making in disaster risk management requires integrating diverse knowledge streams and the proactive engagement of all stakeholders. In this collaborative endeavour, stakeholders play pivotal roles as equal partners, both in the creation and dissemination of knowledge. While there’s a strong emphasis on the co-production of knowledge and stakeholder participation in risk studies, significant gaps persist in our understanding of systemic (multi-)risks. Engaging stakeholders provides the opportunity to gain deeper insights and align our strategies with real-world conditions. However, it also presents a unique set of challenges. These challenges span from defining and framing of the multi-risk context to understanding the very nature of knowledge co-production and the extent to which it should be needs-driven and action-oriented. Moreover, building trust, navigating diverse contexts, and ensuring that stakeholder engagement is truly inclusive and meaningful are notable hurdles, as is the discomfort for researchers to step out of traditional scientific approaches.
This session invites research on approaches for engaging stakeholders in the co-production of risk knowledge, particularly in the field of multi-hazard, multi-risk assessment and their management. We welcome both academic and practitioner contributions that explore (among other) approaches that increase the capacity of decision-makers to create policies and plans to reduce multi-risk impacts; lessons learnt from participatory action research between academia and private sectors in a multi-risk setting, including beneficial changes in practice; tools, models, and frameworks that integrate the needs of diverse local and regional stakeholders and facilitate cross-border management of cascading and compound risks.