Building Resilience to Recurrent Crisis: Policy and Program Guidance Release

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Girls get water from a well provided by USAID.
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12/03/2012

Washington, D.C. - Drawn from USAID’s decades of experience providing humanitarian relief and development assistance, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah launched the Agency’s first-ever Policy and Program Guidance on Building Resilience to Recurrent Crisis today. The guidance seeks to help vulnerable communities emerge from cycles of crisis to a pathway toward development. Ultimately, USAID aims to save more lives, as well as decrease the need for repeated infusions of humanitarian assistance.

The importance and urgency of this work has been made clear during the past year. In 2011, the combined effects of drought, conflict, and other pressures plunged millions into crisis in the Horn of Africa and Sahel. Only a few months later, another emerged in the Sahel, where millions of people have suffered from the devastating impacts of drought, conflict, and other pressures. In response to these emergencies, the international community provided significant levels of life-saving relief, largely concentrated in just a few countries. Over the last decade, international donors in just nine countries spent approximately $90 billion accounting for almost 50 percent of all humanitarian assistance during this period. During the same time, three quarters of USAID humanitarian assistance was spent in just 10 countries. 

To do better, USAID is working with committed and accountable governments and international partners to build resilience. In the Horn of Africa, for example, USAID has set a goal to directly benefit 10 million people and reduce the region’s emergency caseload by one million people within five years.

USAID is committed to undertaking these efforts to strengthen its ability to save and improve lives. No one should have to face the crippling circumstances we have seen in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel over the past year. Through building resilience, USAID can help prevent that desperation, save lives, and create the conditions where families and communities can prosper.

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