20 August 2014: The Rockefeller Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have launched a fund intended to build the resilience of disaster-prone communities in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The initial investment of US$100 million will fund the best ideas and innovations resulting from a Resilience Challenge open to academic, non-profit and private sector entities.

The fund, called the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), aims to help communities better prepare for stresses and shocks, especially as climate change and population growth have exacerbated food insecurity and natural disasters in the targeted regions. The founding partners emphasize that the US$100 million figure is only the beginning and that further support may be generated from cooperation with the private and development sectors.

According to USAID, the Partnership will focus on enabling communities to withstand and rebound from inevitable shocks. The strategy employed will: identify critical capacity gaps; advance data-driven analytics and measurements; design flexible financial mechanisms such as micro-finance and risk insurance; catalyze alliances across all sectors; and enable regional and global learning.

The GRP competition will encourage locally-driven solutions, with an emphasis on multi-disciplinary, cross-sector collaboration. The founders hope to institute a new model for solving complex and interrelated challenges, such as poverty, climate change and food insecurity, by “better aligning humanitarian and development planning, connecting the private sector with civil society and government, and crowdsourcing innovations and solutions.”

GRP was announced at the inaugural US-Africa Leaders Summit, held from 4-6 August 2014. [UNFCCC Press Release] [USAID Press Release] [Rockefeller Foundation Press Release]