Meet Dr Nathanial Matthews. As Program Director and member of the Senior Management Team, he leads the technical element of Global Resilience Partnership’s (GRP) offering, provides oversight and leadership of the programmatic features and technical input into GRP’s investments. He is responsible for defining and executing the overall strategy related to GRP’s technical work streams and leading the teams in implementing markets and innovative financing, technology and infrastructure, policy and influence.

Dr Mathews gives insight into some of the complexities facing the world today and the role GRP is doing in creating a resilient, sustainable and prosperous future for vulnerable people and places.The Global Resilience Partnership was founded by The Rockefeller Foundation, USAID and SIDA, to help millions of vulnerable people in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and South and Southeast Asia to better adapt to shocks and chronic stresses and invest in a more resilient future.

COVID-19, climate-driven disasters: 2020 has been a year of suffering. As we recover economically also from COVID-19, how can

disaster risk governance play an important role as we rebuild our communities to be more resilient with the challenge of rising climate shocks?

The combined impacts of COVID-19 and climate-driven disasters this year have been devastating to many. We must recognize that while we hope to find a vaccine for COVID-19 soon, climate-driven disasters will continue to increase and have profound impacts over the coming decades. We must recognize that the collision of the climate crisis, ecosystem collapse and our deeply-connected societies and economies have resulted in a much more turbulent world. As a result, we should expect more disasters, and their impacts will reach further. These disasters will be especially devastating for the most vulnerable, including women. As we recover from COVID-19, our political, social and economic leaders have the responsibility to build resilience to these disasters and to develop sound risk governance. For governance to be effective, this must be done in an inclusive way that involves the voices of all the stakeholders. The type of recovery we choose now will have far-reaching implications on everyone’s future. Disaster risk governance plays a critical role in building for a resilient future because it helps us to prepare for and mitigate both slow and quick onset shocks and stresses.

With this year’s theme “Disaster Risk Governance” for the Sendai Seven on International

Disaster Risk Reduction Day, why is the role of disaster risk governance becoming important for achieving the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on climate change?

COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of many gains we have made towards achieving the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. Over the past two decades, there have been great increases in reducing poverty, reaching the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, but this pandemic has set us back significantly. The World Bank estimates, for example, that an additional 150 million people may shift into extreme poverty by the end of 2022. The setback that this pandemic has caused in reaching these critical goals is a clear demonstration of the need for disaster risk governance and resilience. With climate change and conflict likely to increase disasters in the future, we need strong governance and frameworks in place and strong political leadership that responds to and prepares for disasters and builds resilience.

How well is the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) placed in addres ing the

COVID-19 biological disaster within the framework of GRP’s approach to resilience?

GRP is a partnership of over 60 public and private organizations joining forces towards a resilient, sustainable and prosperous future for vulnerable people and places. GRP believes that resilience underpins sustainable development in an increasingly unpredictable world. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, GRP has been working across its partners to organize the Voices from the Frontline initiative. Voices from the Frontline is a joint initiative with GRP, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) to support communities across the globe in sharing their stories on the challenges of and the responses to the pandemic and the consequent lockdown. By accumulating and disseminating stories from different communities, we hope to build resilience for the vulnerable in future emergencies.

Are there some examples of good practices related to disaster risk governance that  countries around the world might want to learn from the experiences of the Global Resilience Partnership?

The Voices from the Frontline Initiative documents over 20 good practices that communities are taking to improve disaster risk governance and build resilience especially in the face of COVID-19. This includes providing accurate information on the pandemic through community media, including radio, that can help to dispel myths around the virus such as that it impacts some people differently depending on their religion, or that drinking hot water with turmeric will improve immunity. A common theme across these good practices is the focus on building social resilience through sharing of information, providing early warning systems and supporting community groups. GRP has also worked extensively with community organizations like Mahila Housing SEWA Trust that has worked effectively with women’s groups in informal housing to provide access to the immediate needs of the community, including food and essentials, and to equip the community with relevant information to help them fight health-related, social and economic effects of the pandemic.

What will be the main drivers to ramp up advocacy opportunities to highlight how good disaster risk governance can build resilience?

I believe that the increasing impacts from climate change will continue to push disasters to the front of the political, economic and societal agendas. Sharing and building on the efforts that communities are already undertaking in disaster risk governance is a critical step to demonstrate that building resilience is an investment that will pay significant dividends into the future for everyone.