Kabul – The Afghanistan Resilience Consortium (ARC) inaugurated its new project titled “Strengthening the Resilience of Afghanistan’s Vulnerable Communities against Disasters (SRACAD) at a National Inception Workshop.
This project aims to increase community-based resilience to natural disasters and climate change, targeting approximately 400,000 people in eight of Afghanistan’s most disaster-prone provinces. The high-level event marking the beginning of the SRACAD project was held at the historic Bagh-e Babur, and gathered more than 50 senior representatives from the Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the United Nations, and non-governmental organizations.
The ARC was created in 2014 by Afghanaid, ActionAid, Concern Worldwide, Save the Children, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with generous support from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to provide a coherent and coordinated response to Afghanistan’s urgent needs and vulnerabilities to natural disasters and climate change.
At the event, H.E. Mostapha Zaher, Director-General of the National Environmental Protection Agency, emphasized that building resilience and reducing vulnerability requires “a holistic understanding of the linkages between the environment and disasters, coupled with a comprehensive approach to policy, governance, and community organization.”
The SRACAD project has four components, including institutional capacity strengthening for disaster planning and response, practical community- and school-based disaster preparedness, livelihoods support for the extreme poor and vulnerable households, and advocacy and public outreach on the disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
Key partners for this project include the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA), National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), and Ministry of Education (MoEd), as well as Provincial, District, and Community Development Councils in Badakhshan, Bamyan, Balkh, Ghor, Jawzjan, Samangan, Sar-e Pul, and Takhar provinces.
For any queries on the ARC or the SRACAD project, please contact:
Guru Naik at gnaik[at]afghanaid.org.uk.
To find out more about UNEP's work in Afghanistan follow us on Facebook
