Rising to the Challenge: Success Stories and Strategies for Achieving Climate Adaptation and Resilience

About 1.2 billion people - one in five people in the world – are at high risk from climate-related hazards, but much can be done to make people, business, communities, and countries more resilient. The new World Bank flagship report “Rising to the Challenge” argues that reducing climate and disaster impacts requires a combination of more rapid development, more resilient development, and targeted adaptation interventions. Development plays a key role as nobody can be resilient without access to basic infrastructure and social services, decent housing, or while living in poverty. While a 10-percent increase in income is associated with a decrease in the population at high risk by close to 100 million people, current development patterns will not be enough. An assessment of 44 countries shows that, in spite of growing attention and adaptation planning, most countries are still lagging in implementing resilience interventions, especially those related to policies and macro-fiscal dimensions, and in the monitoring and evaluation of their actions. However, the report dispels the idea that no progress is being done: a collection of case studies - with firms, governments, and public-private partnerships - shows that the private and public actors are undertaking promising adaptation and resilience efforts with measurable results and good practices that can replicated to scale up action and to build resilience for all.