Dr. Rodin explained the importance of planning for shocks before they happen and coordinating humanitarian response with development projects to increase resilience. Investing in resilience programming will create a dividend by both limiting the damage caused by shocks and reducing the costs needed to respond to shocks. The Rockefeller Foundation, USAID, and Sida have convened the Global Resilience Partnership to share and coordinate resources, to scale innovations, and build open source data platforms and monitoring systems in disaster prone areas.

Quotes

Building resilience requires investing and planning in the non-crisis times, so that we are better prepared for the bad times. It enables bouncing back more quickly, and more effectively from a disruption.

By aligning development assistance more closely with building resilience, not only will disasters not be as detrimental to development progress, but less money will be required for disaster recovery and relief, and development investments will be more fully protected. More important, resilience investments will contribute to a greater individual sense of security, one that allows families and households to save more money, to better protect their assets, and to make plans for the future. Critical contributors all, to breaking the cycle of extreme poverty around the world.

Although the Global Resilience Partnership has been founded by a global philanthropy and a bilateral development agency, we are deeply cognizant that resilience only works when we empower many others, including local actors, as active collaborators. In our work, we’ve repeatedly seen the power of partnerships, and the impact of resilience building innovations translated into solutions that affect lives.

Biography

Judith Rodin, President, Rockefeller Foundation

Judith Rodin is president of The Rockefeller Foundation, one of the world’s leading philanthropic organizations. She was previously president of the University of Pennsylvania, and provost of Yale University. Since joining the Foundation in 2005, Dr. Rodin has recalibrated its focus to meet the challenges of the 21st century and today the Foundation supports and shapes innovations to expand opportunity worldwide and build greater resilience by helping people, communities and institutions prepare for, withstand and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses. Dr. Rodin serves as a member of the board for several leading corporations and non-profits including Citigroup, Laureate Education, Inc., Comcast, and the White House Council for Community Solutions. Dr. Rodin is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University.