ADB launches community resilience programme in Asia and Pacific

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) joined the Government of the United Kingdom and the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) to launch the Community Resilience Partnership Program (CRPP), which aims to strengthen climate resilience for local communities, including for women and girls, by scaling up climate adaptation measures in Asia and the Pacific.

The CRPP will support local climate adaptation measures that are aligned with ADB's developing member countries' (DMCs) respective nationally determined contributions, adaptation plans, and disaster risk reduction plans, and focus on poor and vulnerable populations.

The Government of the United Kingdom is providing £45 million (around $61 million) and the NDF €6 million (around $6.9 million).

"Even before the Covid-19 pandemic affected economies globally, the poor and vulnerable were already the hardest hit by climate change," said ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development Bambang Susantono. "As Asia and the Pacific's climate bank, ADB recognises that it is critical to strengthen climate policies and plans in support of local investments in climate adaptation that directly meet the priorities of the poor and vulnerable. The CRPP is critical for helping countries scale up these investments at the local level and will support ADB to achieve our climate adaptation ambitions."

"Locally led adaptation is crucial to building resilience across the poorest and most climate-vulnerable communities," said UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency and Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan. "That's why the UK is committing £45 million of funding to this program, which will play a vital role in ensuring communities, and in particular women, get access to the finance and support they need to build resilience in their communities and advance gender equality, such as by strengthening climate-resilient housing initiatives and disaster preparedness."

The CRPP will provide long-term support to scale up climate adaptation measures that address climate, poverty, and gender challenges. The program is designed for implementation over a 10-year period from 2021 to 2031.

The CRPP will be operationalised through a Financing Partnership Facility which will include a multidonor trust fund to support research, capacity building of national institutions, innovative pilots, and project preparation through technical assistance and grants. The support will aim to kickstart large-scale investments that can be financed through a DMC's national budget, with additional financing from ADB and other development partners. The trust fund will have a dedicated window to promote women-focused investments in climate adaptation.

"The Nordic Development Fund is fully committed to supporting the poor and vulnerable, in particular women and girls who are often most hardly hit by the impacts of climate change," said NDF Managing Director Karin Isaksson. "We have therefore dedicated one-third of our contribution to the program's gender window, with an aim to ensure that gender equality considerations are mainstreamed in all activities financed by the CRPP and to explore the potential of developing women-led investment projects on resilience."

ADB recently raised its ambition for cumulative climate financing for 2019–2030 to $100 billion, of which $34 billion will support climate adaptation. The CRPP will contribute to the climate finance target by supporting climate adaptation in the context of investments in social protection, health, education, livelihoods, and decentralisation.