Climate Risk Management in Action
Climate Risk Management in Action Series
While USAID has recently systematized its approach to climate risk management, USAID has been managing climate risks for years. Older examples demonstrate the value of managing climate risks as well as effective approaches for doing so. More recent examples illustrate USAID’s CRM process and how our tools and other resources can be applied. Since CRM is an active process, the steps of assessing, addressing and adaptively managing climate risk span the lifetime of the programming. Furthermore, with development benefits and climate impacts playing out for years to come, USAID and its partners will be learning about CRM best practices over time. If you have feedback on the process or results, please fill out this feedback survey.
USAID staff may consult internal agency resources for examples of climate risk assessment documentation.
Benefits of Climate Risk Management Series
A primary goal of USAID’s Climate Risk Management (CRM) policy is to increase the sustainability and cost effectiveness of USAID projects. Missions and partners are taking CRM actions that address climate risks in USAID’s complex working environments to produce diverse benefits in all sectors across USAID’s broad portfolio. This blog series on the Benefits of CRM showcases examples of activities in which CRM has contributed to reducing damages to infrastructure, protecting public health, restoring ecosystem services, and building capacity of local decision-makers and community members to better manage climate risks in the future. USAID staff may consult internal agency resources for examples of climate risk assessment documentation.
Image
Credit: USAID/Dominican Republic
Climate Risk Management Strengthens Biodiversity Conservation in Dominican Republic
Those who live in and around the Dominican Republic’s Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo UNESCO Biosphere Reserve have a first-hand understanding of the costly realities of climate change. With support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USAID, and implementing partner Grupo Jaragua, a project incorporated climate risk management and community engagement activities to advance its objectives – tapping into the strong national pride for the island of Hispaniola’s biodiversity to achieve results.
Image
Credit: USAID/Armenia
Armenians Address Water Vulnerabilities Head-On
USAID/Armenia, through its Advanced Science and Partnerships for Integrated Resources Development (ASPIRED) project, has helped prioritize Armenia’s national goal to protect the country’s artesian aquifers, which are subject to water stress challenges that exist throughout the country.
Calming Climate-Related Conflict in Karamoja
A program in Uganda's Karamoja region is helping communities resolve conflict over grazing lands even as more intense drought increases pressure on these lands.
Attributes:
Activity, Planning the Assessment, Incorporate Assessment Results, Implement and Adaptively Manage, Uganda, Conflict Management and Mitigation, CRM
Identifying and Managing Climate Risk in Global Nutrition Interventions
The new global Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Project was one of the first activities to undergo USAID’s CRM process. The resulting extensive climate risk assessment highlighted the need to include strategies, interventions and assessments to build climate resilience both into program implementation and among beneficiaries in activity design.
Attributes:
Activity, Conduct the Assessment, Incorporate Assessment Results, Global, Nutrition, Food Security, CRM
Managing Fisheries in the Face of Climate Risk
Climate risk management is woven throughout the design of a new USAID/Philippines fisheries protection project, which will improve fisheries productivity and increase the resiliency of fishing communities.
Attributes:
Activity, Conduct the Assessment, Incorporate Assessment Results, Asia, Philippines, Fisheries, CRM
Haiti Water and Sanitation Programs Prepare for Climate Events
A USAID/Haiti Water, Sanitation and Hygiene activity aims to increase sustainable access to water and sanitation services. The activity is pursuing multiple measures to address risks such as contamination of raw water supplies, damage to infrastructure and flooding of latrines due to more variable precipitation patterns and extreme events by, for example, ensuring the construction is resilient to expected climate impacts.
Attributes:
Activity, Conduct the Assessment, Incorporate Assessment Results, LAC, Haiti, WASH, CRM
USAID’s Country Strategy for Zimbabwe: Integrating Climate Risk Management
Climate change was included in the regular steps of creating a new USAID country strategy in Zimbabwe, which resulted in a stronger strategy. In the health sector, for example, the strategy calls for enhanced surveillance to monitor malaria, as changing average temperatures may spread the prevalence of mosquitoes to new regions of the country.
Attributes:
Strategy, Plan for Screening, Conduct the Screening, Incorporate Screening Results, Africa, Zimbabwe, Health, CRM
Engineering Design Builds Climate-Resilience in Haiti and Dominica
In Haiti and Dominica, infrastructure improvements were made that resulted in communities being more resilient to climate impacts.
Attributes:
Pre-CRM Policy, Activity, LAC, Haiti, Dominica, Infrastructure
Climate Integration Case Study: USAID/Uganda’s Commodity Production and Marketing
USAID/Uganda’s Commodity Production and Marketing activity has taken a climate-smart agriculture approach that has lead to farmers adopting climate-resilient practices and technologies. This approach has contributed to increased yields and reductions in post-harvest losses.
Attributes:
Pre-CRM Policy, Activity, Africa, Uganda, Agriculture
Climate Integration Case Study: USAID/Senegal’s Naatal Mbay
USAID/Senegal’s Naatal Mbay has taken a climate-smart agriculture approach that has, as an example, increased use of daily and seasonal rainfall data to help manage production risks from rainfall variability and drought.
Attributes:
Pre-CRM Policy, Activity, Africa, Senegal, Agriculture
Climate Integration Case Study: Assets and Market Access Innovation Lab
The Assets and Market Access Innovation Lab leads research to help smallholder farmers in developing countries manage production risks and adopt improved agricultural technologies and practices. Areas of work include development of insured loans and index-based crop insurance.
Attributes:
Pre-CRM Policy, Activity, Agriculture