Foundations for change: Using adaptive management to navigate uncertainty
This report presents lessons from Year 3 of Phase II of the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance community engagement, learning, research, and advocacy work. The report focuses on how the Alliance structure and culture have allowed us to adaptively manage to ensure continued focus on flood resilience and progress toward our goals, while also addressing COVID-19 needs and concerns. The Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance is a multi-sectoral partnership which brings together community programs, new research, shared knowledge, and evidence-based influencing to build community flood resilience in developed and developing countries. The report presents concrete recommendations for both donors and practitioners regarding why and how to proactively implement similar adaptive management elements in development, risk reduction, climate adaptation, and resilience work.
How climate change will manifest and how to adapt to climate risk are highly complex and contextual. This necessitates shifting towards proactive programming that provides practitioner organizations with the flexibility to manage and leverage shocks
and stresses and provides donors with the confidence that program objectives can be met in spite of challenges. It is not enough to simply ‘pause’ programs during climate shocks that erode development gains, exacerbate vulnerabilities, and dramatically change community needs and priorities. Developing a proactive program requires starting from the position of “we want people to be better off,” setting clear end goals, and then putting in necessary review points and flexibility to restructure programs and activities as needs change.