USAID has taken new steps to tackle the global climate crisis. On June 10, 2021 at the G7, USAID announced it has joined three multilateral partnerships through which it helps countries prepare for and mitigate climate-related disasters.

“USAID is committed to working with the G7, multilateral partners, other donors, and host governments to help climate-vulnerable countries anticipate and manage the impacts of disasters and climate change,” the USAID announced.

The United States joined the InsuResilience Global Partnership coalition that provides developing countries timely and reliable disaster response through early warning systems, disaster risk finance and insurance solutions to strengthen resilience for communities hardest hit by climate change. To reach the partnership’s goal of protecting 500 million poor and vulnerable people against climate shocks by 2025, USAID will help partner governments improve their ability to avert and minimize damage to those most at risk.

USAID joined the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) to advance early warning systems that enable climate-vulnerable countries to take early actions to protect lives and livelihoods. Launched at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019, this multilateral partnership brings together the humanitarian, development, climate and meteorological communities to increase investment in climate adaptation, early warning systems and disaster risk reduction.

In July, 2021, USAID will become a co-chair of the Partnership Council of the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), which works with over 400 local, national, regional and international partners to provide grants and technical assistance to manage and adapt to disaster and climate risk, as well as reduce the impacts of disasters. GFDRR is a long-term partnership between the World Bank, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and donor countries.

“There is real power in the collective action of these larger organizations,” said MRR Innovation Lab policy engagement coordinator Sophie Javers. “By partnering with them, as we have for several years now, we are able to share our knowledge and move evidence into policies that will change lives.”

Since the MRR Innovation Lab launched in 2019 it has joined many of these international efforts focused on risk-management by contributing field-tested evidence on what works. The Lab is a member of the InsuResilience Global Partnership and the Global Resilience Partnership, which in turn is a member of REAP. The Lab has also participated in multiple events hosted by the GFDRR.

The MRR Innovation Lab has driven global dialogues on quality standards for agricultural index insurance to ensure that this innovative risk-management tool achieves its promise for rural families. MRR director Michael Carter leads the Quality Index Insurance Certification (QUIIC) initiative, a partnership between UC Davis and Kenya-based Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD). This work is vital, considering that the InsuResilience Global Partnership’s monitoring and evaluation framework now includes product quality.

USAID will announce additional contributions at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.

Read the USAID news release