The International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Anticipatory action and innovative climate resilience in humanitarian contexts
The IRC’s mission is to help people whose lives and livelihoods have been shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. The IRC works in over fifty countries worldwide. It has been a partner of the Trafigura Foundation since 2019.
One hundred million people are currently displaced globally by conflict, persecution, and crisis. The climate crisis is exacerbating these trends, while existing climate financing and adaptation programs are risk averse and do not reach those who need them the most. The IRC therefore aims to build the climate resilience of communities that live in fragile and climate-vulnerable areas, by enhancing their access to livelihoods and resources and co-creating with them effective, people-centred solutions.
In the next three years, the Foundation will support the IRC’s Economic Recovery and Development Unit and the IRC’s Airbel Impact Lab Climate Resilience Initiative to enable communities in the most fragile and climate-vulnerable areas to build climate resilience. The programme is global in scope, but will focus on priority countries such as Niger, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria.
Specifically, the partnership will help the IRC to:
- Establish an anticipatory action fund, to allow IRC country programmes to finance and deliver prevention activities before crises occur.
- Design and test innovative climate adaptation solutions in seed security, disaster risk reduction, and livelihood transitions.
- Generate lessons learned for local and national stakeholders, other international humanitarian organisations, and donors.
- Unlock commitment and funding to support climate adaptation interventions in communities affected by conflict.
The aim is to develop and finance anticipatory action and climate resilience programming at scale, to contribute to improved climate-resilience of communities in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
Three-year grant (2024-2026)
