USAID PREPARE to mobilize millions to support developing states

03 / 11 / 2021

By Marwa Nassar - -

US President Joe Biden announced an ambitious set of targets to advance the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE). PREPARE will support developing countries and communities in vulnerable situations around the world in their efforts to adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change. These impacts are already being felt, and USAID brings significant experience to bear on supporting equitable, inclusive climate resilience in developing countries.

PREPARE activates a coordinated, whole-of-government approach and will serve as the framework that brings together the diplomatic, development, and technical expertise of the United States to support more than half a billion people in developing countries to adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change through locally-led development by 2030. PREPARE will serve as the cornerstone of the U.S. government response to the increasing impacts of the global climate crisis.

Through PREPARE, USAID aims to mobilize $1 billion of public and private finance for climate-resilient water and sanitation services by 2030.

US will also launch the Green Recovery Investment Platform, which will invest up to $250 million to mobilize $2.5 billion of private finance for adaptation and mitigation by 2027 by creating incentives and reducing risks for large-scale private investment to address the climate finance gap.

It will also invest a target of $100 million over five years, leveraged by an equal or greater amount from private sector partners, in the sustainable conservation of forests and the well-being, prosperity, and resilience of local communities.

With the State Department, USAID will contribute $21.8 million to disaster risk financing in Africa so that African countries can access and layer disaster risk financing, including insurance coverage, needed to successfully manage increasingly frequent and intense climate-related extreme weather events.

The USAID intends to support vulnerable countries around the world in their efforts to develop, implement, and finance their adaptation priorities, as communicated in their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and other adaptation planning documents.

It will also bolster climate adaptation and resilience in Central America by expanding critical climate information and services to the region through the SERVIR program, a partnership of USAID, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and leading geospatial organizations around the world.

Under the Climate and Weather Ready Nations program, USAID and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), plan to train local climate forecasters, and leaders to predict climate hazards and impacts, strengthen hydrometeorological early warning systems to save lives, and expand climate observations through 3-D printed automated weather stations around the world.

In coordination with other US government agencies and partners, USAID will support partner countries in achieving their commitments made in alignment with the World Health Organization’s Initiatives on Climate Resilient Health Systems and Sustainable, Low Carbon Health Systems.

The US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) as part of its new Strategy, End Malaria Faster, will work with partner countries to adapt programs to changing conditions such as the timing of insecticide spraying campaigns in response to shifting rainfall patterns.