Generating multiple disaster resilience dividends
Recommendations for communicating the benefits of prioritising resilience
Investing in disaster-risk resilience brings ample direct benefits but for decision-makers, making the case for investments in disaster risk reduction (DRR) can be challenging. The multiple resilience dividends narrative supports a broader business case for DRR investment.
The Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance - of which Mercy Corps is a member - has observed that investing in resilience can generate a wide range of benefits: protecting lives, loss reduction, and wider development, social, and environmental co-benefits. Highlighting the multiple benefits of resilience can increase buy-in, acceptability, and overall support for resilience-enhancing measures.
Decision-support tools are useful for identifying and communicating these multiple dividends. Making the case now is important in the context of climate change, which is increasing risks, and at a time of massive global investment in infrastructure that needs to be made disaster-proof and climate-smart.
