World Bank : Scaling Up Climate and Disaster Resilience for the World's Most Vulnerable

During the past fiscal year, GFDRR provided nearly $80 million in grants that address these challenges in over 89 countries. This work has enabled vulnerable countries to leverage significant additional funding in resilience - including more than $3 billion from the World Bank alone in FY15.

The impact of GFDRR's growing program this past fiscal year included:

• Supporting a post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA) and further recovery efforts after two high-magnitude earthquakes struck Nepal's Kathmandu Valley in April and May. This assessment helped lead to $4.4 billion in donor pledges, including $500 million from the World Bank.
• Training over 11,000 people in disaster risk management (DRM) topics, including in Indonesia where a GFDRR-supported initiative focused on capacity building has trained over 750 local DRM practitioners from 53 districts.
• Strengthening available risk information in Malawi through community mapping and open-source platforms. This data was used after the country suffered its worst flooding on record in January 2015. GFDRR has supported recovery efforts, including a PDNA and a disaster recovery framework.

GFDRR also scaled up DRM through its innovative thematic initiatives. The Safer Schools Program is helping to make students and schools safer through better construction practices. For example, it is working in Nepal to improve the safety and quality of the country's education facilities as it builds back after the April and May 2015 earthquakes. Another program, the Small Island States Resilience Initiative (SISRI), supports highly vulnerable countries in reducing climate and disaster risks to their communities, economies, and ecosystems.

This past year has been historic for the global resilience agenda, marking the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (SFDRR), which will help guide GFDRR and the global community's DRM efforts through 2030, as well as the landmark climate agreement in Paris and the Sustainable Development Goals.

'This has been a monumental year for the development community,' said Francis Ghesquiere, Head, GFDRR Secretariat. 'As we work toward helping countries realize the Sendai Framework, the Paris agreement, and other accords, the work of GFDRR will be central help build resilience.'

2016 will bring other important conversations around the resilience agenda, especially international milestones like the World Humanitarian Summit and Habitat III. GFDRR will work to inform and implement these larger frameworks, and ensure the needs of those most vulnerable to disaster and climate risk remain at the forefront of the post-2015 development agenda.