Study of the interaction between adaptation to climate change, disaster risk reduction strategies and poverty reduction policies
March 2010 - August 2012
The RESILIENCE (Risk Education and Social Interactive Learning through Integrating Experiences, Networking and Coordination in Europe) project, funded by the European Commission for a duration of 30 months, is being carried out by a multi-disciplinary team from the project’s parterns: Groupe URD, the University of Wageningen and CARE Netherlands. The research is being carried out in three contexts: Bolivia, Ethiopia and Indonesia, with CARE’s projects being used as a “testing ground”.
The RESILIENCE project aims principally to analyse the resilience of communities in relation to environmental and climatic crises and more specifically “to explore, understand and exchange about the strategies and processes of state and non-state actors, for effective programming which is adapted to climate change, risk reduction and poverty reduction, with a particular accent on European institutions”.
A series of six field studies were carried out between July 2010 and November 2011 in each of the project’s focus regions – Kalimantan in Indonesia, Pando in Bolivia and Borana in Ethiopia. These helped to identify the resilience strategies implemented by local communities in response to different types of natural disasters : forest fires in Indonesia, floods in Bolivia and drought in Ethiopia. They have also made it possible to analyse the environmental, economic, social and political vulnerabilities of local people and to understand the interaction between the different stakeholders: local communities, civil society organizations, the private sector, local authorities and governmental institutions.
Each field study was followed by a conference to present and discuss the findings with all the relevant stakeholders. These conferences were also an opportunity for stakeholders to exchange points of view, talk about their own constraints and identify obstacles to be overcome to ensure that there was better cooperation between actors and to reinforce the resilience of communities in relation to natural disasters and climate change.
On 24 November 2011, a workshop has been held in Brussels bringing together the main European actors involved in disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and poverty reduction. This workshop was an opportunity to compare the field study results with the experiences of different stakeholders – NGOs and NGO networks, donors, experts and states. It has also been an opportunity to identify the means of overcoming conceptual, ideological and institutional obstacles to the integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into poverty reduction programmes. One of the objectives of this conference was to produce recommendations to make this integration directly applicable in the European Union’s development aid policy. These recommendations could then be incorporated into the EU’s 2014-2020 financial plan.
In the first semester of 2012, three practical tools will be available for actors involved in reinforcing community resilience: a film presenting the results of the RESILIENCE study, a handbook and a dynamic tool based on the approach developed by Groupe URD with the Quality COMPAS.
Three short films have already been produced in connection with the RESILIENCE project:
- Video on the field study in Indonesia, CARE and Groupe URD, july 2010.
