The Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance builds on work that began in 2013, looking specifically at how to increase community flood resilience around the world. David Nash, Head of Adapting to Climate Change at the Z Zurich Foundation, has been part of this work since the very beginning. As the Alliance expands its scope to include additional climate hazards beyond floods, he reflects on his personal journey, and the lessons learned in over ten years of building resilience.
How did you first get involved with the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance, as it was then?
I started my career with Zurich Insurance UK, within the business, a long time ago, but back in 2001 I had the opportunity to go on a volunteer assignment to India, which subsequently led me to run the volunteer programme that sent people on these assignments. That led to being hired by a mental health charity in India.
When Zurich’s head of sustainability approached me in 2012 about a new flood resilience project, I didn’t know anything about floods or disasters – but I understood the importance of building and maintaining relationships with community organizations and international NGOs, so I joined on that basis. Fortunately, over the years I have developed a much better understanding of the technical aspects of flood resilience!
At what point did you become aware of the potential of the Alliance to have a positive impact?
It was within the first twelve months or so. We were looking at what “resilience” actually meant, and whether we could measure it. This led to what is now the Climate Resilience Measurement for Communities, which underpins all of the Alliance’s work, and it found its first life in somebody asking, “if you’re building community resilience, how do you know whether you’re being successful?” There were lots of ideas and frameworks about what resilience could be, but it was all very conceptual. What we set out to do was to understand it as something practical and measurable.
By working alongside our research and NGO partners, and by bringing in some of Zurich’s expertise from a risk analysis perspective, together that led to something that was much better than any of us could have done on our own. As a result of that, we thought, “hang on a minute… we’re on to something here.” We felt that bringing together these very different perspectives and harnessing them for a common cause was something the Alliance could be very good at.
We’ve started to look at how to amplify the lessons learned and influence some of the bigger systems that impact many communities, not just the ones we directly work in
The Alliance is now expanding its scope beyond flooding, to address additional climate hazards. Was there a particular moment that made it clear to you that this is what needed to be done?
No, it was a fairly gradual process. We started off by thinking about floods as the symptom, and didn’t really dive into the causes. As time has passed, the conversation about why floods happen – and whether they are getting worse – led us to start thinking about this as a climate change issue.
That opened us up to a whole range of other symptoms that climate change also manifests as. Extreme heat and extreme winds are becoming more of a problem, we’re seeing more wildfires… so should we be thinking about those too?
We needed to determine whether the tools we used to measure flood resilience could be used for other hazards. Once we thought that it was possible, we began trials as part of the Urban Climate Resilience Program, also supported by the Foundation, to test whether the tools could work in other contexts. This led naturally to asking what the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance should do next, and continuing to expand the scope.
It’s an evolution; it’s about always pushing the boundaries of this idea of climate adaptation, and recognizing that we can do more.
The Foundation intends to fund the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance until 2035. How did such a long-term commitment come about?
Over the last five years we’ve had some successes with larger-scale outcomes. It’s not just all about how many communities we’ve been in and how many lives have been benefited; we’ve started to look at how to amplify the lessons learned and influence some of the bigger systems that impact many communities, not just the ones we directly work in.
Because of these successes, that’s led us as a Foundation to start asking, “there’s only so much we can do with the funds we have – how can we have an influence at scale, and really drive a change in behaviour that isn’t just about the work we do directly, but also helps to catalyse additional work by others?”
That set us off on a path that looked at 2035 as a time horizon, and acknowledged that there’s much more we can do, but only if we have the ambition, and the time – otherwise we’ll never see change at the scale that we’re looking for.
Is short-term thinking in the development sector still as much of a problem as it always has been?
I think there’s a lot that’s still stuck in short term thinking, and in traditional funder-recipient relationships. I understand why funders might be risk averse; they like a little bit more certainty with things. It’s part of the conversation that I continually have with our board – to try to reassure them that, while they aren’t necessarily seeing results this year, there’s ambition and a long-term aim, and it builds over time.
I think that we could do with having a mindset change in the whole sector, frankly. We need to be thinking longer term – it’s something I believe very strongly.
By working alongside our partners… together that led to something that was much better than any of us could have done on our own. As a result of that, we thought, ‘hang on a minute… we’re on to something here’
What have you enjoyed most about being part of the Alliance?
The way in which we work together. In meetings where we’ve had so many organizations in the same room, they’ve been able to look at things as part of a combined effort, not only through an individual organization lens, and that’s helped us see a way through some of the challenges.
From a more personal perspective, it has to be seeing directly the reality of the impact our work is having in communities. It’s the sense of well-being that comes from knowing that the efforts of the Alliance’s teams around the world are really making a difference to people’s lives.
Find out more about the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance and its objectives here.