Humanitarian organizations operate in increasingly complex environments, facing multiple, overlapping crises, including conflicts, complex emergencies, and climate change-related disasters. The Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations, under its Commitment 1, calls on signatories to “reduce risks and vulnerability to shocks, stresses, and longer-term changes through an increased focus on climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and anticipatory action (AA).”
Across the sector, there is a growing recognition of the need to integrate long-term climate adaptation, DRR, and preparedness measures into humanitarian programming. However, a significant challenge in advancing these objectives is understanding how to finance preparedness, ideally through mainstreaming. For some, this may involve integrating preparedness measures, like a risk analysis, into existing programs and budgets. For others, it may require securing appropriate and sustained resources dedicated to these activities. This poses a challenge as humanitarian funding is often limited to short-term response cycles, and organizations encounter barriers to accessing suitable funding streams that align with these longer-term objectives. Recent funding cuts to humanitarian and climate budgets, have further limited organizations’ programming and capacities to tackle some of these objectives.
Further, while there is a broad range of resources and expertise on Commitment 1 into humanitarian programming, organizations could greatly benefit from improved access to and awareness of this expertise.
Learning from organizations that work on mainstreaming DRR and Early Warning and Early Action (EW/EA) and understanding available funding options can both improve the sector’s ability to advance Commitment 1 of the Climate Charter, as well as provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities in accessing finance to advance climate and environment commitments within humanitarian action.
This webinar, co-convened by the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations, United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) will provide a platform for Charter Signatories and the broader humanitarian sector to explore opportunities and challenges related to implementing and financing long-term, preparedness and DRR mainstreaming in programming.
Through case studies and funding options on DRR and EW/EA, the webinar will introduce participants to different types of resources and mechanisms available and explore practical pathways to mobilize resources. It will also open the discussion to signatories on the challenges they face in accessing funding for Commitment 1 and assess the level of support required to enhance resource mobilization for climate and environment-related interventions.
Webinar Objectives:
This webinar co-convened by UNDRR, REAP, and the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations aims to:
The outcomes of this session will inform discussions at relevant global events in 2025, including the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW March 2025), the European Humanitarian Forum (EHF May 2025), and the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2025 June 2025).
The webinar will be in English with translated captions available.