LocationsFunding resilience, not disasters
October 13, 2025
The world stands at a crossroads. Climate change, rapid urbanization, and the growing frequency, damages, and losses of disasters are testing the foundations of our societies. But within these challenges lies opportunities to transform how we plan, invest, and build for the future. Funding resilience is not merely about responding to crises; it is about protecting people, livelihoods, the environment, and development gains.
The evidence is broad, strong, and becoming difficult to ignore; reducing risk and preventing disasters represents a far better investment than spending on response and recovery efforts. Studies show that US$1 spent on disaster risk reduction delivers an average return of US$15 in terms of averted future disaster recovery costs (GAR, 2025).
Despite the evidence, most disaster financing focuses on post-event response and recovery rather than preventative disaster risk reduction, with pre-arranged financing accounting for a small fraction of crisis funding. Between 2005 and 2017, US$137 billion was allocated for disaster-related development assistance. Of that, nearly 96% was spent on emergency response, reconstruction, relief, and rehabilitation. A mere 4%, or US$5.2 billion, went toward disaster prevention, mitigation, and preparedness (UNDRR[1]).
While there has been some recent increase in proactive funding, the shift away from reactive measures is still insufficient. Growing bodies of evidence on the return on investment (ROI) of resilience and risk reduction spending provides ample incentive for governments, investors, funding partners, and private sector actors to break this vicious cycle and prioritise prevention and mitigation. It is the case for sustainability, the case for smart spending, and the case for protecting the human potential of the most vulnerable.
SDG11, target 11.5 asks us, UN agencies and member states, to “significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses […] caused by disasters, including water-related disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations” by 2030. How do we reduce deaths, affected people, and direct economic losses after they happen?
The role of UNDP North Macedonia
UNDP North Macedonia has been strategically advancing resilience-building efforts across sectors and regions in the country for 30 years, helping communities, institutions, and ecosystems better withstand and adapt to the growing impacts of climate change and natural hazards. In partnership with the Government, international partners, and local stakeholders, this long-term commitment is transforming risks into resilience and vulnerability into opportunity.
- Building flood resilience in the Vardar River Basin
With generous financial support from the Government of Switzerland, UNDP has coordinated and implemented significant investments for enhancing flood resilience and environmental protection in the Polog region – a major hotspot for flood risk in the country and located in the upper Vardar Basin.
[1] https://www.undrr.org/implementing-sendai-framework/drr-focus-areas/financing-prevention
Along the great Vardar River, 8.5 kilometres of riverbank were stabilized through 12 nature-sensitive structural interventions in Jegunovce municipality, while 7.7 kilometres of the riverbed were restored through extensive vegetation removal and debris clearance in Gostivar municipality. With critical co-funding from the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, two riverbeds were arranged for resilience in municipalities of Bogovinje and Tetovo in the village of Shipkovica.
Resilience is best built with integrated and nature-sensitive approaches, wherever possible. In addition to interventions on the riverbed, over 43 hectares of land have been reforested in Sharr National Park, with additional investment from the Public Enterprise National Forests in planting 5,000 seedlings. Urban flood resilience measures were also implemented in Tetovo and Gostivar following runoff studies, and landslide stabilization works were completed in seven high-risk zones.
Thanks to these targeted and impactful disaster risk reduction interventions in Polog, the region now avoids an estimated €4.48 million in annual flood related damages.
- Building flood resilience in the Drini River Basin
The flood resilience work of UNDP in North Macedonia extends beyond the Vardar Basin to the transboundary Drini River Basin.
Following a decision in 1961, the Sateska River was diverted into Lake Ohrid for developmental and risk reducing needs at the time. An unwanted consequence of this decision was an unsustainable sediment load and pollutants in Lake Ohrid collected from the Sateska watershed. Lake Ohrid, UNESCO World Heritage site, home to some 200 endemic species and one of the most biodiverse lakes on the planet, now faced unacceptable ecological risks – threatening precious life-supporting ecosystems, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Additionally, due to lack of maintenance, cleaning, and planning, the development and resilience initiative instead became a driver of flood risk following decades of neglect.
Investing in resilience of ecosystems and communities, UNDP, with financial support from the Adaptation Fund, addressed this as part of a transboundary project between North Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro. Through complex and thoughtful interventions, UNDP supported Macedonian authorities and communities through a set of interventions to improve the state and resilience of the Sateska river and consequently Lake Ohrid.
The interventions focused on restoration and improvement of flow capacity with cleaning, stabilization and regulation of the riverbanks in a length of 3.5 kilometres, reduction of sedimentation in the riverbed by providing anti-erosion measures and sediment collection and rehabilitation, and upgrade of the sluice gate facility to enable effective water diversion management.
Beyond the Sateska River, the resilience project delivered excavation of an estimated 22,000 cubic meters of deposited sediment from the Black Drin riverbed in the urban part of Struga in the autumn of 2020. Overgrown vegetation and sediments were removed along an 800-meter river segment, directly reducing the flood risk for more than 1,000 people in the surrounding communities.
- Building urban and community resilience
Urban centres, hosting most of the Macedonian population, have been a central priority for resilience investments. During the scorching summer of 2024, North Macedonia faced relentless heatwaves and severe forest fires, with Skopje hitting a sweltering 42.7°C. In response, UNDP supported the City of Skopje to create a detailed thermal map to pinpoint urban heat islands and design evidence-based interventions. More than 70 targeted measures to cool the city followed, ranging from urban greening interventions, tree-planting for canopy cover, to installing green and cool roofs.
One of the most transformative interventions was the conversion of 1600 square metre rooftop area of Skopje’s shopping centre, identified as one of the hottest zones, where temperatures soared 9°C higher than in the city square. In partnership with UNDP, The City of Skopje funded the transformation of the mall’s roof into a lush, green oasis, with nearly 3,700 plants, vertical gardens, and equipped with a specialized irrigation system, has significantly boosted urban resilience.
By reducing surface temperatures, filtering air pollution, and improving stormwater management, this green roof counters the risks of extreme heat and boosts urban greenery, biodiversity, and energy efficiency. Features like vertical gardens and cooling fountains have turned the space into a welcoming urban retreat. A similar initiative was launched atop the Koco Racin cultural centre, demonstrating how nature-based and climate-responsive urban design proving how smart, climate-conscious design can cool cities, prevent climate risks, and create healthier, greener communities.
In other parts of the country, the project to empower municipal councils delivers integrated community resilience measures at the local level, with funding support from the Government of Switzerland. Through the project’s Small Grants Scheme, over US$900,000 is being invested into 11 community-driven projects across 10 partner municipalities, which was also co-funded by municipalities themselves. What makes this initiative stand out? Citizens themselves, through Community Forums, identified and prioritised the most pressing local resilience needs, from creating safer spaces for children and youth through sports and recreation, to improving waste management with new equipment, and regulating a riverbed to prevent flooding. These grassroots efforts show how meaningful community participation can drive impactful and inclusive resilience investments.
- The case for a resilient future
Beyond physical interventions, UNDP established and chairs the National Coordination Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, aligning resilience policies and investments across national and international stakeholders. At the UN level, UNDP also leads the UNCT inter-agency group on resilience, ensuring coherent, long-term action to build safer, greener, and more climate-resilient communities.
All these interventions are demonstrations what funding resilience looks like. We need to acknowledge the importance of resilience-building interventions and apply ourselves to envision the damages and losses that we prevent and mitigate through such actions, based on evidence. Together, we invest and build resilience for the most vulnerable, we leverage co-benefits of nature, and we protect hard-earned development gains.
When we invest in resilience, we invest in dignity, security, and hope. We move from a mindset of vulnerability to one of empowerment. We shift the narrative from “what we lost” to “what we built to last.” The return on investment is not only economic, but also social and moral. Resilient societies foster trust, reduce inequality, and inspire collective action. They are societies that do not merely survive crises, they evolve through them.
Authors: Ljubica Teofilovska, Project manager and Joel Bäckman, Programme Analyst.
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