Finance for emergency preparedness: links to resilience

This background note addresses the cost effectiveness of investing in resilience when compared with approaches that rely exclusively on ex-post response and recovery, and the lack of funding towards disaster prevention and preparedness, which can build the resilience of communities to cope with emergencies. It considers emergency preparedness as a capacity that helps absorb shocks and provides a way to achieve resilience itself. The note examines some ways in which the concept of resilience could be used as an over arching frame, providing an opportunity to promote funding for sector specific gains that span the humanitarian and development continuum. It includes some examples from Kenya, Niger and Nepal, as well as recommendations to inform and shape the parameters of funding mechanisms in ways that can progress the resilience agenda and the role that emergency preparedness plays.