Access to disaster risk financing for frontline local actors

This report shows how disaster risk financing reaches – or fails to reach – frontline actors, and identifies practical ways to close the gaps that keep timely, adequate, locally led financing out of reach. It is built on the experience of the people who know disaster response best: GNDR’s members. Local and national civil society organisations across the Global South are consistently first on the ground when disaster strikes – and this research puts their knowledge, priorities, and lived expertise at the centre of the evidence.

This study confirms a critical  and persistent gap at the  heart of global disaster risk management: those closest to risk are the least able to access the financing required to address it. The findings underscore that access — not technical capacity — is the primary barrier. Complex application processes, restrictive eligibility criteria, high compliance burdens, short funding windows, and reliance on intermediary partnerships continue to prevent frontline actors from securing timely and flexible resources.