USAID expands three multilateral partnerships to help countries vulnerable to climate change

Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced new actions at the G7 to tackle the global climate crisis by helping countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.  Through three important multilateral partnerships, USAID is helping countries prepare for and mitigate climate-related disasters. 

By empowering governments and communities to proactively manage risk before disasters strike, these partnerships help countries protect critical development gains. USAID is committed to working with the G7, multilateral partners, other donors, and host governments to help climate-vulnerable countries anticipate and manage the impacts of disasters and climate change. USAID will announce additional contributions at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. 

InsuResilience Global Partnership 

The United States joined the InsuResilience Global Partnership (link is external) coalition to provide developing countries timely and reliable disaster response through early warning systems, disaster risk finance, and insurance solutions to strengthen resilience for communities hardest hit by climate change. To reach the partnership’s goal of protecting 500 million poor and vulnerable people against climate shocks by 2025, USAID will help partner governments improve their ability to avert and minimize damage to those most at risk. Through these investments in relief before disasters happen, USAID is empowering governments to respond swiftly to emergencies and support people who lose their livelihoods.

Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership

USAID joined the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership (link is external) to advance early warning systems that enable climate-vulnerable countries to take early actions to protect lives and livelihoods. Launched at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019, the multilateral partnership brings together the humanitarian, development, climate, and meteorological communities to increase investment in climate adaptation, early warning systems, and disaster risk reduction. The partnership aims to make one billion people safer from disasters by 2025.

Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)

USAID will become a co-chair of the Partnership Council of the World Bank’s GFDRR (link is external) in July 2021 to help developing countries better understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change. Working with over 400 local, national, regional and international partners, GFDRR provides grants and technical assistance to help countries manage and adapt to ever-changing disaster and climate risk, as well as reduce the human and economic impact of disasters. GFDRR is a long-term partnership between the World Bank, the United Nations Office For Disaster Risk Reduction, and donor countries.

USAID is a longtime supporter of the GFDRR, and since 2010, has been a member of the Partnership Council, the Facility’s primary decision-making, oversight, and advisory body. The chair and co-chair of the Partnership Council provide strategic direction to help countries recover from disasters quickly and integrate disaster risk management and climate change adaptation into development strategies and investment programs.