Governance & Policy

The development of governance and policy arrangements required to enable the integration of disaster and climate resilience concepts in all infrastructure creation.

The quality of governance drives investment, growth, sustainability, resilience and inclusivity of infrastructure. CDRI will identify elements of good risk governance that promote infrastructure resilience. It will explore innovative concepts and tools required to bridge the information, policy and fiscal gaps across different levels of government. It will identify appropriate incentive mechanisms and regulatory approaches that lead to a stronger demand for disaster resilient infrastructure. CDRI will leverage opportunities to partner with private sector actors for building disaster resilient infrastructure.

Risk Identification & Estimation

The identification and estimation of risk to and from infrastructure from large and small hazards, from the macro to micro scales. 

Understanding and measuring disaster risk to infrastructure systems is instrumental in designing resilience plans. CDRI will work to identify the biggest risks arising from natural hazards, assess the potential impacts and design resilience plans to mitigate risk across infrastructure sectors. It will carry out sector specific as well as national risk and resilience assessments across geographies.

Standards and Certification

Adoption of mechanisms required for developing, enforcing, and updating scientific standards and regulations for infrastructure resilience in light of changing technology and risk profile.

Sound technical standards must be adhered to while building and scaling up the resilience of infrastructure systems. This ensures that infrastructure is equipped to withstand present disasters as well as the impacts of climate change. Standards are a mechanism to assures investors that infrastructure assets are protected. CDRI aims to promote the most rigorous and effective standards for infrastructure resilience, globally.

In geographies where disaster and climate resilience standards do not exist, CDRI will support the development of new standards and certification mechanisms in partnership with government and the private sector. It will also encourage the adoption of systems that ensure that these standards are updated as per changing risk profiles, new technologies and capacities in the related fields. Over time, CDRI envisions becoming the clearinghouse of standards and certification processes that ensure the disaster and climate resilience of infrastructure worldwide.

Capacity-building

Enabling the exchange and spread of scientifically accurate knowledge enabling the contribution of all stakeholders to building resilience of infrastructure systems.

Reduction of natural hazard induced damages to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services requires capacity development for context-specific knowledge and greater emphasis on its practical application, including pre-disaster preparedness and post-disaster reconstruction. Infrastructure development involves multiple stakeholders, and therefore raising awareness and building capacities through training programmes targeting each category of stakeholder across global, national and local contexts is necessary. CDRI aims to provide robust, evidence-based guidance on capacity development to make infrastructure disaster and climate resilient.

Innovation & Emerging Technology

In facing the unprecedented challenges of intense disasters, breakthrough innovations and adoption of new technologies can be our savior. Emerging technology are those innovations whose science, development, and applications are largely unutilized, but their scope and potential are immense. Current technology innovations encompass applications of augmented reality, GIS, GPS, drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, nanotechnology, advance materials, computer assisted designing, 3D printing, Big data, Internet of things (IOT), machine learning, data mining, Industry 4.0, block chain, and so forth. Alongside, innovations are also taking place on non-technological space such as systems innovation, social Innovations, financial innovations, to name a few.

Despite several such innovations, their upscale adoption in practice is limited. CDRI aims to provide a platform that gathers information on such advancements and share it with the resilient infrastructure community globally. CDRI also aims to promote innovations for developments of new technologies and work with governments for their adoption. Overtime, CDRI will develop and leverage its network of innovations hubs, knowledge-partners, and technology users to create and ecosystem of innovations for resilience.

Recovery & Reconstruction

Ex-ante development and adoption of mechanisms for assessing losses, estimating needs and channelling adequate funds to disaster affected areas in a timely manner.

Natural hazards are the leading cause of large-scale damages to infrastructure worldwide. The recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction phases after a disaster provide nations with an opportunity to increase the resilience of infrastructure and communities through integrating disaster risk reduction measures into the restoration of physical infrastructure and societal systems. CDRI aims support nations on recovery and reconstruction through activities in both pre- and post-disaster phases. Before disasters, CDRI aims to support countries in developing and adopting mechanisms for assessing losses, estimating needs, prioritizing recovery and reconstruction activities and channelling adequate funds to disaster affected areas in a timely manner.

In the post-disaster context, CDRI will mobilize rapid technical advice to countries that have experienced a major disaster to integrate resilience into the rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure and the restoration of critical services. These activities will build on the lessons learned from the experiences of recovery and reconstruction in other countries and regions. In both phases, CDRI will promote the concept of “build back better” within infrastructure recovery and reconstruction.

Finance

Risk financing strategies for each nation will depend on its capacity, risk appetite, resources and willingness to manage risk. Appropriate financing can incentivise resilience of infrastructure systems.

Investing in resilient infrastructure makes economic sense but there are many challenges in realizing this aim. Demand for investment in infrastructure is huge and largely underfunded which makes it even more difficult to mobilize additional funds for resilience building. The public resources alone may not be sufficient to cater to such demands and would require involvement of the private sector.

CDRI aims to provide technical support to the member countries in identifying and developing innovative solutions for financing resilient infrastructure through public-private-partnership and other frameworks of investing. Furthermore, the Coalition will support CDRI Member Countries in implementing a comprehensive disaster risk financing (DRF) framework to protect public finances from fiscal shocks associated with disasters and build the financial resilience of the government. To this effect, CDRI will undertake several technical studies and facilitate a policy dialogue between and among stakeholders around financing resilient infrastructure and an overall DRF policy framework for governments.

Community-based Approaches

Building the capacities of local communities to participate in the process of creating and sustaining small-and large-scale infrastructure, so as to enhance disaster and climate resilience of the community and its surrounding infrastructure. 

Globally, the role of community participation and provision of infrastructure services is widely gaining recognition. By engaging with vulnerable communities, CDRI aims to understand community needs for disaster resilient infrastructure. CDRI will partner with community-based infrastructure providers to enhance disaster resilience through a focus on inclusion, gender sensitivity, engagement and capacity building, CDRI aims to harness indigenous knowledge and reduce disparities in provision of disaster resilient infrastructure.