With the Facility in its tenth year, FY17 marked a year of reflection and learning. A key outcome of this process has been the development of GFDRR’s Strategy for 2018-2021, which demonstrates an evolution of the Facility from a mechanism that financed short-lived activities, to one that enables large development programs, which integrate climate and disaster risk reduction measures.
Over the past few years, this strategic approach has had impacts across countries globally. In drafting the new Strategy, GFDRR outlined targets for the next three years that will help better communicate the results of its activities.
Lastly, this process helped GFDRR to better structure its work across its eight areas of engagement, and prioritize particular focus areas of strengthening city resilience and deepening engagements in resilience to climate change.
Leveraging Development Investments
In FY 2017, $2.6bn was leveraged through GFDRR’s partnership with the World Bank, and over $2 billion was leveraged from national governments and other development partners.
Over the last year, GFDRR developed a more robust way to define its leveraged investments and a more systematic way to capture these as well. Per the new methodology, GFDRR categorizes the way that it leverages investments in three ways, including:
ENABLING development investment by directly supporting the design and/or implementation of a DRM investment from national governments or development partners.
INFORMING mobilization of resources from national governments or development partners.
CO-FINANCING DRM operations with other development partners to increase the scale of interventions.
In-Country Engagements
To make progress in its strategic areas of engagement, GFDRR channels financing to in-country engagements that help strengthen capacities. GFDRR awards grant resources based on established criteria aligned with its operating principles.
Core to GFDRR’s vision is helping countries bring resilience to scale. As such, many of GFDRR activities target interventions that inform larger development programs.
In FY17, GFDRR had active engagements in 80+ countries, around $260 million in financial commitments, and leveraged over $4.6 billion in development investments.
Areas of Engagement
GFDRR implements its strategy through eight areas of engagement that support the Sendai Framework priorities and that contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.
These include: (i) promoting open access to risk information; (ii) promoting resilient infrastructure; (iii) scaling up engagements for city resilience; (iv) strengthening hydromet services and early warning systems; (v) deepening financial protection through disaster risk financing and insurance; (vi) building resilience at the community level; (vii) deepening engagements in resilience to climate change; and (viii) enabling resilient recovery.
Financing Windows
GFDRR finances demand-driven technical assistance through development partners. While all donors contribute to a common multi-donor trust fund, dedicated financing is received from Japan, the European Union, and the Climate Risks and Early Warning Systems Initiative.
