EcoDRR – a source of hope for climate resilience in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is one of worst natural disaster prone countries in the world. Being a highly mountainous country located in the Himalayan Hindukush mountain region, it is affected by natural disasters such as Earthquake, Flood, Drought and Extreme weather conditions. With over 30 years of conflict, the country lacks infrastructure and capacity to tackle impacts of these natural disasters. Afghanaid leads a group of International NGOs operating in Afghanistan to form a consortium called, the Afghanistan Resilience Consortium or ARC to support Afghan communities fight natural disasters and climate change.

Between 2015 and 2019, ARC implemented a 16m GBP project on Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) in 705 communities in Afghanistan. Between 2019 - 2021, ARC implemented a 10m GBP project on Ecosystem Based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) in 245 communities, where it used ecosystem restoration and soil-water conservation as its main methodologies. This work not only reduced disaster risk from flash floods, but also improved climate adaptation against drought in a degraded mountain ecosystem like Afghanistan. This short presentation, “Source of Hope (Climate Resilience in Afghanistan)” documents this project.