News and updates

As part of the One Billion Coalition for Resilience (1BC), on 23 October 2018, the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan (RCST) announced an Integrated Safety and Health Education program to promote safety, health, and well-being education in schools throughout Tajikistan. RCST invited the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, UNICEF, the Aga Khan Development Foundation, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, and other interested organizations to join together in the initiative and to link their activities and efforts.

Elhadj As Sy, IFRC Secretary General, joined the ceremony by video from Geneva and congratulated Tajikistan for establishing the first coalition in Europe and Central Asia contributing to the global One Billion Coalition for Resilience. Naming this move as an excellent example to other sister National Societies in the region, the IFRC leader said, “I started my own career as a teacher, and I know first-hand the importance of education in improving the life skills and life opportunities of young people. We are proud of our Red Crescent volunteers in Tajikistan and we hope this initiative plants the seeds for a wider set of community volunteers to take up the resilience challenge across the country”.

Bahodur Qurboniyon, the Red Crescent Society Secretary General, says, “Through this effort the goal is to reach and engage all of the schools in Tajikistan and their respective communities. In particular, RCST sees an opportunity to provide content and suggested activities to help teachers use the existing classes to provide a strong learning opportunity on disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation, first aid provision, water, sanitation, and hygiene, humanitarian needs and values, and etc.”

This concept engages students with the wider community through homework assignments (e.g. to create a family disaster plan), learning-by-doing in the community (e.g. participating in an assessment exercise with local RCST volunteers), and in class activities (e.g. participating in a first aid class).

• Full concept note in English
• Full concept note in Tajik

Working groups during kick-off event for the initiative

23rd October 2018

A Resilience Convening hosted by WFP, UNDP, the Global Resilience Partnership, and the IFRC took place 20-21 November 2017 in Munich, Germany at the WFP Innovation Accelerator. Innovations that were presented included:

1. BANGLADESH and ETHIOPIA | Roads to the Rescue (GRP)
2. ALGERIA | Hydro Sahrawi (WFP)
3. NEW ZEALAND | Business Preparedness Initiative (BPI) (IFRC)
4. MALDIVES | Drones for improved disaster preparation and response (UNDP)
5. CAMBODIA | Platforms for Real-time Information Systems (PRISM) (WFP)
6. HORN OF AFRICA | Satellite Technologies, Innovative and Smart Financing for Food Security (SATISFy) (GRP)
7. NEPAL | Community rebuilding app (UNDP)
8. ZAMBIA | Maano Virtual Farmers Market (WFP)
9. BANGLADESH and TOGO | Forecast-based Financing (FbF) (IFRC)

For more details see the following:

• Report from the event – coming soon!
• Agenda for the event
• Description of innovations being presented
• Speaker bios

The Red Cross Red Crescent recently hosted a important series of events on future scenarios and innovation during its 2017 statutory meetings in Antalya, Turkey.

These included the RC² Forum which highlighted the following issues:

The IFRC also hosted a fantastic exhibit called ‘The Future is Now’ described in the video below:

The Prudence Foundation, National Geographic, and the IFRC have announced ‘Safe Steps First Aid‘ as a regional initiative in Asia and the Pacific to train 200 million people in First Aid. For the IFRC this regional campaign is a contribution toward the global One Billion Coalition for Resilience goals.

For more details see the Safe Steps website and the press release from the Prudence Foundation.

Catapult Satellite Applications hosted a unique workshop on applying technology and innovation at scale for 1BC. During the first day delegates were split into four tables with different thematic areas including Civil Society, Business Resilience, Policy & Advocacy, and Operational Response. The participants explored these areas through three activities to:

1. review aims and objectives for each thematic area in relation to community resilience and identify existing services as well as capability gaps
2. look at how the aims of each thematic area could be supported through links to the other areas – e.g. through the sharing of critical information to support more informed decision making.
3. identify the most critical links and services that are  required for each theme and begin creating a roadmap for a solution that was based on an understanding of the user needs, broader thematic context, and underlying technology capabilities.

The second day was an opportunity for application developers with existing services relevant to the
1BC initiative to present their ideas to a mixture of funders and experts to receive feedback on their
ideas, build connections, and solidify their place in the coalition.

For more details, see the summary report from the workshop.

In November 2015, the One Billion Coalition for Resilience (1BC) was announced at the Red Cross Red Crescent International Conference held in Geneva. 58 RCRC national societies and governments pledged there to join 1BC.

See the following links for more detail on the:

• 32nd International Conference
• ‘One Billion Coalition: Building community resilience and contributing to sustainable development’  pledge

At the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in March 2015,  the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) presented the One Billion Coalition for Resilience (1BC) as  a voluntary commitment toward the post-2015 disaster risk reduction and Sustainable Development Goals.

See the related story on the IFRC website for more details.