Responding to emergencies

Recent stats from CARE's emergency response work include a fourfold increase in the number of communities who can take Disaster Risk Reduction actions using their own resources.

Recent stats from CARE's emergency response work

  • Communities take action: There was a fourfold increase in the number of communities who can take Disaster Risk Reduction actions using their own resources. By the end of the project 90% of communities were investing their own money to prepare for disasters. [DIPECHO, Madagascar]
  • More money is available for risk prevention: Local governments increased their budgets to improve disaster preparedness. One government allocated more than $16,000 directly. Another delegated a percentage of local taxes to help prepare for risks. [DIPECHO, Madagascar]
  • Families changed their behavior: 88% of families adopted new agricultural technologies to help themselves be more climate resilient. 87% of households invested in materials to help reduce their risk, like building better houses. [DIPECHO, Madagascar]
  • Move from planning to action: 61% of communities had a disaster reduction action plan, and 37% of communities had fully funded that plan. [DIPECHO, Madagascar]
  • Helped families become more resilient: Families are 10 times more likely to have insurance, and 12 times more likely to have an emergency preparedness plan than they were when the project started in 2014. [Seaweed, Philippines]
  • Families were more resilient: Families were better able to respond to crisis, even during the extreme El Nino event in 2015-2016. There was a 3.8-fold increase in families using savings to cope with shocks, and a 19% decrease in the number of families who reduced the number of meals they ate in a day as a response to crisis. There was also a 40% drop in the number fo households that suffered weather-related crop loss. [GRAD, Ethiopia]
  • Families bounce back after crisis: In periods of political unrest, producers in Bangladesh’s Strengthening Dairy Value Chains project saw a production drop by 3.8% and were able to return to pre-crisis levels in 2 weeks. Non-SDVC families took 7 weeks to recover, and had production fall by 7.1%. [SDVC, Bangladesh]
  • Helped families plan for climate change: Niger was able to get a $4 return for every $1 invested in getting governments and communities to plan for climate emergencies. [CBA, Niger]
  • Better climate resilience: Farmers in PROCOCO faced a 10% production loss due to climate conditions—but the rest of Ghana saw a 19% production loss over the same time. [PROCOCO, Ghana]
  • Families can cope with crisis: Savings from VSLAs mean that families can replace assets, buy extra food, and absorb shocks. In contrast to the traditional means of investing in livestock—which are a prime target for violent groups during the conflict—cash savings are more portable and less likely to be destroyed. [VSLA Impact, Sudan]
  • Families had 33% more value: Families in the ECRP program were able to save more assets from the floods and reduce the damage to their homes compared to people not in the program. This means they came out of the flood with more assets and fewer recovery costs. [ECRP, Malawi]
  • People were better warned: ECRP communities were 53% more likely to have gotten early warning of the floods that non-participants. They also had access to more sources of information, and were more than twice as likely to use more than one source of information to prepare for emergencies. [ECRP, Malawi, link]
  • More people took action: Families in ECRP were 78% more likely to take action to prepare for floods than those who weren’t in the program. [ECRP, Malawi]
  • Communities are more confident in their ability to save lives: Twice as many ECRP families felt that action helps save lives. ALL of the ECRP communities feel that they can handle future shocks, and NONE of the non-ECRP communities felt ready to handle new shocks. [ECRP, Malawi]
  • Invest in planning: ECRP communities were 4 times more likely to have a Village Crisis Prevention Committee and a Risk Management Strategy than communities without the program. [ECRP, Malawi]
  • Giving families the tools to deal with disaster. The percentage of households using adaptive strategies went up 55% (from 56.4 to 87.3). Beyond that, people are less likely to use negative coping strategies in the face of shocks, even though shocks have gone up dramatically. The number of people selling off productive assets fell by 40%, and the families who reduced their investment in agricultural productivity was cut in half (from 60% to 30%). [Pathways, Ghana]
  • More resilience to climate change: Families are 31% more likely to be using savings to deal with shocks—which is incredibly important in the face of the massive El Nino drought they are having. They are also 2.6 times more likely to be using drought-tolerant crops. [Pathways, Malawi]
  • Climate-resilient crop production: In a year where crop production has dropped between 35 and 50% across the districts where Pathways operates due to the drought, Pathways families have seen their production hold steady. In non-drought years, they saw impressive production increases. [Pathways, Malawi]
  • More diverse livelihoods: The number of families who diversify their livelihoods as a way to protect against potential shocks went up 23%. [Pathways, Malawi]
  • More household assets: Families own twice as many assets as before, which can help cushion in emergencies. Land ownership was particularly important—it more than doubled from 2 acres at baseline to 4.3 at endline. The number of women who could control land went up 16%. [Pathways, Malawi]
  • Responding to emergencies: A CARE-facilitated Community Disaster Committee was able to evacuate 95% of the village to safety and no one was seriously harmed during hurricane Pam in 2015. [Yumi Redi, Vanuatu]
  • Adapting to climate change: The number of families who are taking action to mitigate climate change impacts nearly tripled, from 25% at baseline to 69%. [Pathways, Tanzania]
  • Diversify incomes: Given more choices about how to make money, 64% of households diversified their income sources to protect themselves in cases of emergency. [Pathways, Tanzania]
  • More wealth, and a cushion for emergencies: Families have been able to increase their assets by 22%, which can help them cope with crisis. There aren’t just more assets, they are also more equally shared. The number of women who control assets also went up 86%. [Pathways, India]
  • Better agricultural practices: The number of families using agricultural techniques that will help them adapt to climate change has doubled. [Pathways, India]
  • Responded to emergencies: During the 2014 hungry season, partners accessed finance and inputs to get 960 tons of food to 3,500 families who would otherwise have been unable to eat. [PROGRES II, Niger]
  • Better resilience: Even in an El Nino year with critical droughts, agricultural production went up by as much as 56% for some crops. In places where national yields were dropping by 30-50% (like Malawi), yields for Pathways farmers largely stayed constant or went up. [Pathways, global]
  • Boosted resources: 10,621 people have benefited from either cash or food vouchers—usually for about $60—with CARE’s support. [CEG, Somalia]
  • Better resilience: Although the El Nino droughts have reduced production on some crops this year, the project was still able to produce more than 1,500 metric tons of fruits and vegetables so far, and yields for this year were higher in Nourishing the Future communities than the national average. [Nourish the Future, Guatemala]
  • Built disaster preparedness plans: 28 villages now have disaster preparedness plans that they were able to build in conjunction with local government because of their new relationships. [Building Costal Resilience, Vietnam]
  • Better ability to adapt to climate change: 85% of women in the program areas, and 97% of women directly involved in the project say that they have a better understanding of climate risks and impacts. 67% of women in the program feel better able to adapt to those changes than they were before. [ICAM, Vietnam]
  • Built the ability to respond to climate change: 40,000 more people are now using at least 3 strategies to adapt to climate change—an increase of 37%). The most popular strategies are diversifying crops, planting more trees, and using conservation agriculture techniques. Data from 2015 suggests that ECRP families were much better able to respond to the flooding that hit their region hard this year. [ECRP, Malawi]
  • Protected families against recession: In 2013-2014, Malawi had a variety of economic shocks that raised the poverty rates in relevant districts by nearly 12%. ECRP beneficiaries saw no rise in their poverty rates, which the evaluator attributes to activities cushioning families from shock. [ECRP, Malawi]
  • Built Resilience to Climate Change: 30% of project participants are receiving climate information to make decisions, and 38% of families are taking on at least one climate risk reduction behavior. What’s more, this is equal for men and women, so even the climate work is building equality? [ENSURE, Zimbabwe]
  • Supported Climate Change Resiliency: 84% of households adopted at least two practices associated with climate change adaptation, and 96% have adopted at least one practice including early maturing crop varieties, moisture conserving practices, and drought tolerant crop types and varieties. CARE’s CVCA model is also a key part of PRIME and other resilience projects in Ethiopia. [GRAD, Ethiopia]
  • Increased access to climate information for all community members more than doubled to 34.9%. Amongst farmer group members 66.7% had access and most used this information to plan their activities. [MAKA, Timor Leste]
  • More than two-thirds of villagers see themselves better adapted and prepared for climate risks (69.2%). [MAKA, Timor Leste]
  • Increased ability to cope with shocks: 64% of families said they were better able to respond to shocks because they had built their assets. Families timed the VSLA payouts to coincide with the lean season so that they can still have food and feed their livestock in times of stress and crisis. [PRIZE, Zimbabwe]