Local leadership

The challenge

The people at the front line of disasters are often excluded from plans and activities to reduce risk. Our research shows that 84% of local actors – civil society organisations, local governments and community members – are not included in assessing threats, preparing policies and plans, and taking action to reduce threats.

When development is not informed and led by those on the front line, communities report that far from offering progress, this so-called development is actually creating risk, increasing existing risk and wiping out any potential gains.

Our solution

In partnership with Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, a German NGO, we’re delivering a three-year project that will scale-up existing resilience projects developed and led by local actors. Our aim is to enable communities to more effectively utilise their knowledge and skills  to increase resilience to complex disasters.

The project, named Local Leadership for Global Impact, will run until 2023. Implementation will involve over 50 GNDR member organisations in a variety of activities from capacity strengthening to local action and advocacy.

Risk-informed development resources

We’ve produced new guidance and tools on how to do risk-informed development by partnering with communities most at risk. And we’ve delivered capacity strengthening to GNDR member organisations around the world on how to take this approach.

We’ll also produce new resources and tools on contingency planning and anticipatory action for disasters. These tools will be piloted in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique. We’ll also provide training on these tools to GNDR members globally.

International advocacy

We’ll be advocating at the international level for greater involvement of local leaders in disaster risk reduction. We’ll push for risk-informed development at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Platform and the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. At COP26 and subsequent events we’ll push for localising climate projections. And we’ll strive for better anticipatory action at the Humanitarian Networks and Partnership Week and the ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment led by OCHA.

Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe

Our Local Leadership for Global Impact project is implemented in partnership with Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and funded through them by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). All content on this website is the sole responsibility of GNDR and does not necessarily reflect the views of DKH or BMZ.