Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance

Climate change and the devastating impacts that it brings are overwhelming the ability of communities and governments to cope.

The people most affected by climate change are often the least responsible for causing it and lack the resources to cope with the impacts.

As a founding member of the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance (the Alliance), we work with communities around the world to help them increase their resilience to climate hazards.

Formerly the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance, the Alliance is a multi-sectoral partnership, powered by the Z Zurich Foundation. We focus on enhancing resilience to climate hazards in both rural and urban communities.

We have over ten years of experience assessing and evidencing community climate resilience and finding suitable solutions.

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Dates

2024 - Ongoing

Countries

Bangladesh, Bolivia, Nepal, Peru and Senegal

Themes

Climate resilience

The Alliance’s vision is a world where communities are resilient to climate hazards, enabling them to thrive.

Through the Alliance, Practical Action aims to achieve the following objectives:

Enhance and increase the resilience of urban and rural communities to climate hazards.
Promote the widespread adoption of good climate resilience practices.
Increase the funding available for communities to improve their climate resilience.
Improve the policy environment for building community resilience to climate hazards.

Project overview

Full title: Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance

Dates: 2024 – Ongoing

Location: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Nepal, Peru and Senegal

Our role: Practical Action is working with rural and urban communities to make resilience a way of life, finding ways to adapt to and prepare for the impacts of climate change. We also share our knowledge and experience of what works with communities, practitioners, and decision-makers.

Participants: We aim to directly benefit 2 million people in more than 130 communities around the world through our community programme work.

Value: CHF 9,087,722 to the end of 2027.

Aim: Resilience that protects

Alliance partners: Concern Worldwide, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET-International), London School of Economics (LSE), Mercy Corps, Plan International, Practical Action, Zurich Insurance Group.

Project Aims

Bangladesh

The Practical Action Bangladesh team will target improving Disaster Risk Management, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) planning and increased finance for DRR/CCA at the local level with the aims to achieve the following:

Ex-ante resilience of communities is enhanced in line with climate impacts.
Avert and minimise loss of livelihoods and assets through improved early warning and early action.
Introduce parametric insurance services to vulnerable communities.

Bolivia

Practical Action is working with rural and urban communities in Bolivia to strengthen resilience at the community level, with a focus on strengthening EWS’s, improving DRM, DRR and CCA planning, increasing finance and introducing resilient practices related to insurance. The Bolivia team will work to achieve the following:

Anticipatory actions triggered by timely climate information.
Integrate effective flood risk reduction measures led by communities.
Ensure that wildfire risk reduction efforts are considered from a local perspective in project and local and national policies.
Introduce insurance mechanisms to increase wildfire and flood resilience to those most vulnerable.

Nepal

Through the Climate Resilience Programme in Nepal, our team have a goal to increase social, political and financial investment in community-based flood and heat resilience-building through public, private and third-sector partnerships. They aim to achieve the following outcomes:

Increase ex-ante resilience of communities at risk.
Improve early warning and early action.
Enable quick recovery of people’s livelihoods through compensation and/or insurance.

Peru

In order to build safer and more resilient communities in the Rímac and Vilcanota river basins, Practical Action’s work in Peru focuses on three priority topics: early warning systems, the role of ecosystems in disaster risk management, and governance and investments. Through their work as part of the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance, the team aim to achieve the following:

Foster interaction between sectors, people and innovative technological tools.
Target regional and global initiatives that will help to leverage our impact.
Advocate for improved decision making for prospective risk reduction.
Work alongside national entities to ensure that climate and weather forecasts trigger ex-ante action.

Senegal

As our focus shifts from flood resilience to wider climate resilience, the Practical Action Senegal team will work to achieve the following outcomes:

Establish an effective and inclusive community-based early warning system (EWS).
Work on improving disaster risk reduction planning.
Work on improving local government access to decentralized climate funds.
Strengthen the resilience of communities affected by floods and heatwaves in West Africa by integrating nature-based solutions into development planning.
Improve the living conditions of urban communities exposed to the effects of poor urban planning exacerbated by the impacts of climate change.

The Z Zurich Foundation

The Z Zurich Foundation is a charitable foundation funded by various members of the Zurich Insurance Group. It is the main vehicle by which Zurich delivers on its global community investment strategy. It aligns with Zurich’s sustainability agenda, purpose & values, and culture. As part of its Adapting to Climate Change pillar, it is the funder and an active member of the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance and also runs the Urban Climate Resilience Program.

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Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance