Local voices for resilience: Lessons learnt from more than 14,000 conversations around the world

This report presents the outcomes of conversations with 14,282 people from local communities, local civil society organisations and local governments across diverse risk contexts, held between 2014 and 2018 in 22 different countries. This initiative was implemented as part of GNDR's Frontline programme, which uses a specific methodology to gather, analyse and use local information.

The participants reflected on their knowledge of critical shocks, their experiences of barriers to reducing risk and what they identify as the most effective steps to address these obstacles. Such in-depth information gathered directly at the community level provides insights on how to build resilience in complex real life situations, and how to design cross-sectoral solutions that become useful when working across sectors or in complex, fragile or informal settings. Civil society organisations have worked with communities to use the findings to develop local action plans and work with governments to bring about changes in national priorities, services and systems.

This publication reviews 21 case studies from countries around the world, collected by Frontline partners, describing the experience of communities in using local information for action, coalition building and advocacy. Each case study has been analysed to identify success factors; some key messages were then drawn from this analysis, aimed at highlighting what makes for an effective action or campaign based on local information.