Theory of Change
What is our vision?
A world in which everyone works together to strengthen the resilience of people most at risk and prevent hazards from becoming disasters.
Why is this not happening?
Instead, disasters are increasing in impact and they are disproportionately impacting the most marginalised because:
- CSOs have shrinking space to amplify local realities
- Actions are not appropriate as they are not informed by local realities
- Development is often not risk-informed and creates more risk as poverty, disasters, and climate change are addressed incoherently
Our vision can be achieved if:
- Partnerships and joint actions between CSOs are created or strengthened, and civic space is widened
- There is an increase in local actors deciding on resilience priorities and securing sufficient resource
- Development takes into account the range of threats at the local level
To bring about these changes, GNDR will need to:
Strengthen the collaboration, mobilisation and solidarity of CSOs
We can achieve this goal if:
- CSOs recognise the benefit of collaboration over competition
- CSOs are able to collaborate
- Mechanisms and policies are in place to enable collaboration
- CSOs are held to account to collaborate
Champion a localisation movement
We can achieve this goal if:
- Governments and INGOs believe CSOs should lead
- Local CSOs have capacity to lead and be accountable to communities most at risk
- The enabling environment for local CSOs to lead exists
- Global and national actors are held to accountable for localisation
Strive for risk-informed development
We can achieve this goal if:
- Different sectors believe they must build resilience whilst advancing development
- Evidence-based knowledge exists and is applied on how to do effective risk-informed
development in six critical contexts - Different sectors at different levels have the opportunity to collaborate
- All actors, not just DRR practitioners, have clear roles for taking risk into account
Photos
Top photo: Paranati Patra fetches water from a borehole. Paranati lives 22km from the industrial town of Paradip in India. As a participant in Views from the Frontline she highlighted the threat of air pollution, saying: “50% of people living in the community are suffering from respiratory and heart disease. Air pollution causes itching, irritation and discomfort in eyes. We would like to know how we can reduce the risk of air pollution and remain healthy.” Credit: Sarika Gulati/GNDR
Above photo: Credit: Geoff Crawford
Download the full strategy
The full GNDR strategy document is available in PDF format in four languages.
Find out more about the work of our global network by visiting our main website.
Our supporters
This site was made possible due to the generous contributions from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation.

