In their March 7, 2017 blog post on the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) website, Helen Young and Anne Radday call on BRACED to increase its focus on how to build resilience in the toughest settings, where history and local institutions may be part of the answer.

Their post begins:

Working in fragile states and conflict settings was a hot topic at the recent BRACED Annual Learning Event in Entebbe, Uganda, in February. Many BRACED consortia are working in contexts where there is conflict, lack of local government, political instability or economic crises. In these places climate vulnerability is often exacerbated by these other types of shocks.

We recognize that when climate risks intersect with other shocks, they take on new dimensions of threat. This is a new phenomenon with which all consortia (and many outside of BRACED) are grappling and which is affecting our abilities to build resilience. Although it was not confirmed on the official agenda, more than 25 participants representing approximately three-quarters of all BRACED consortia joined an ad hoc session to share experiences and identify lessons learned…Read the rest here.

BRACED is DFID’s flagship resilience building program. Under this program DFID has funded (£140 million over three years) 13 consortia working in 15 countries (across the Sahel and in Asia) to implement resilience programs. Learning about what works to build resilience is a key component of BRACED. Learn more about BRACED here.