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Partners for Resilience

Resilience against natural disasters and the consequences of climate change

All over the world, the number and the severity of natural disasters, caused by climate change, has been increasing. A natural disaster of great proportions may directly cause massive loss of life, but it also has a huge impact on the social and economic structure of a society and its opportunities for development. Ecosystems, on which people depend directly for their subsistence, are also severely damaged by natural disasters. More often than not, the poorest populations are hit disproportionately hard in these situations. Achieved results regarding the Millennium Development Goals are usually wiped away in one fell swoop when disaster strikes.

In order to improve this situation, five organisations have started working together. The Dutch Red Cross (secretary), the Red Cross Climate Centre, CARE Netherlands, Cordaid and Wetlands International aim to increase the resilience of citizens against natural disasters, climate change and the deterioration of ecosystems with their alliance ‘Partners for Resilience’. To this end, Partners for Resilience submitted a request for subsidy to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the scheme MFS-II. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accepted this request by awarding 40 million Euros, to be spent in the years 2011-2015.

Partners for Resilience developed a leaflet (pdf, 4 MB) setting out the background, aims and unique character of Partners for Resilience.
NEW: report (pdf, 769 kB) of the Partners for Resilience workshop in the Netherlands, March 2012
Watch here an introduction film on Partners for Resilience (Youtube 5:24)
Watch here a film with interviews by contributors from around the world in varying circumstances, built into a short sequence for the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction event held by UNISDR in Geneva, May 2011.

Partners for Resilience

Partners for Resilience wants to make communities more resilient with these funds. Because, the more resilient a society is, the less vulnerable it becomes. Human suffering, deterioration of ecosystems and material damage may thus be prevented. This is also a way of investing in a future with less need for emergency relief.

Partners for Resilience strives to help and support 750.000 to 1.000.000 people in 9 countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Uganda, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. These countries are especially vulnerable to natural disasters related to climate change and/or the deterioration of ecosystems.

The alliance wants to make people less vulnerable by implementing various intervention strategies:

Stimulating sustainable economic developments
Strengthening the capacity of local organisations and local authorities, among other things by making a risk assessment, natural disaster risk management plans and warning systems
Advocacy and stimulation of knowledge sharing between governments, civil society, knowledge institutes and the private sector in the field of natural disaster reduction and climate adaptation.

MFS II

The current subsidy scheme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFS I), which would expire at the end of 2010, was renewed by former Minister Bert Koenders. The new subsidy scheme, MFS II, has been developed to stimulate the cooperation between development organisations and to increase the effectiveness of the aid efforts. The goal is to strengthen civil society in developing countries, hereby contributing to an increased resilience and poverty reduction.

The organisations of Partners for Resilience think that cooperation and coordination, on a local level, between relief organisations on site in the countries will have the greatest effect. The alliance came into existence by a joining of forces of organisations that are active in the same countries/areas and whose fields of expertise complement each other. Through the alliance, the different organisations want to increase their shared knowledge and capacity in the field of natural disaster reduction and pass it on to the communities that need it.

In December 2009, it was possible to submit a request for subsidy to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the first assessment phase, Partners for Resilience was invited in April 2010 to submit an extensive proposal for the second assessment phase. Now that the amount of the subsidy has been disclosed, the participating organisations and their partners in the various project countries will organise workshops and researches in order to jointly develop a detailed planning for the next few years. The first programmes in the field of natural disaster reduction and climate adaptation have started in the spring of 2011.