USAID and Rockefeller Foundation have announced a $100 million Global Resilience Partnership for Asia and Africa, especially focusing on South and Southeast Asia, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, said a press release yesterday.
The partnership will lay out a bold new vision for building resilience to disasters, food insecurity, the effects of climate change and other factors contributing to poverty in communities across Asia and Africa.
It would focus on South and Southeast Asia, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa—areas particularly susceptible to disasters or crises of all kinds.
Michael Yates, director of the USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia, said: “Disasters have been increasing in Asia because more people are in harm’s way without the means to protect their loved ones and their possessions.”
“To change this, we will build networks through this partnership and solicit the best ideas from local governments, the private sector and civil society, so that our collective investments will protect lives and livelihoods,” he said.
In the last 30 years, the number of weather-related disasters has tripled, and the cost is up 300 percent to $200 billion every year. While low-income countries were hit by only 9 percent of these disasters, they represented 48 percent of all fatalities.
