Askehave Climate Foundation and BRAC
The Askehave Climate Foundation is excited to announce its first partnership as part of the Humanitarian Response programme. The chosen partner is the Bangladesh Founded organisation BRAC. BRAC is widely known in Asia, and globally for its graduation model, which is a step approach to ‘graduate’ the very poorest out of extreme poverty. BRAC has long history of development and social protection work in Bangladesh, dating from 1972 when the organisation was founded. Since then, the organisation has expanded both in the region of Asia and in select countries in other continents.
The board of the Askehave Climate Foundation was particularly impressed with the coherent presentation of BRAC, of how it responds rapidly and effectively to humanitarian crises and disaster situations in the region, while combining its work with strongly rooted community based resilience and climate adaptation work. BRAC works very closely with local government, supporting disaster responses upon the request of local authorities, while keeping a strict focus on the most vulnerable, impoverished, and marginalised communities. The board of the Askehave Climate Foundation additionally appreciated that BRAC is a Southern led NGO, and as such represents a voice that is important within the humanitarian response system. Finally, the board valued that while focusing intensively on community capacity and social protections systems, the organisation is also striving hard to sustain its activities in an innovative fashion, and by market based solutions. This focus on securing alternative pathways to sustainability of BRAC core activities gave the application a strong basis.
“I am pleased with this first partnership”, Johan Askehave, founder of the Askehave Climate Foundation underlines, “and look forward to learning much more about the strong, locally based approach to disaster responses and climate relief that BRAC represents”.
Similarly, George Mukkath, Acting Director of Partnerships and his team from BRAC acknowledges,
“We are excited to join the Askehave Climate Foundation on this first step of its journey. We will do our very best to live up to the intentions of the foundation and to ensure a flexible and transparent partnership, where both parties can learn from each other. We know for sure that the support will have an impact and make a change for the communities that we know so well in Bangladesh and the Philippines. They are vulnerable to the repetitive natural disasters and severe weather events of the region, and their livelihoods and assets, including shelters and water access, are extremely sensitive to climate change”.
