Disaster Risk Reduction Exploratory Design Research

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risk through systematic efforts to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. However, in fragile and conflict affected states (FCAS), there is an absence of effective approaches to DRR in agro-pastoral communities. This gap leads to increased community vulnerability and promotes a cycle of environmental degradation, poverty, and conflict.

There are critical problems causing the absence of effective DRR in agro-pastoral communities, which stem from barriers in both national and global enabling environments. At the national level, DRR is not comprehensively implemented in agro-pastoral communities and, where it is implemented, approaches are often ineffective and even maladaptive. At the global level, traditional donors are rarely funding DRR in conflict affected countries, and where they are, the funding is not effectively reaching agro-pastoral communities. Existing humanitarian solutions are few and have not addressed the root causes of the problem primarily due to issues of access, conflict-sensitivity, and inability to identify sustainable pathways to scale.

In the spring of 2025, a team of cross-disciplinary innovation, technical, and country program staff, in coordination with farmers and local stakeholders, conducted exploratory human-centered design research as a first step to generate, test, and scale DRR solutions for agro-pastoral communities in countries facing co-occurring climate and conflict crises. The aim of this research was to identify opportunities to integrate local, indigenous and traditional knowledge (LITK) with emerging technology to promote holistic and adaptable DRR solutions that span preparation, response and recovery under dynamic climatic and conflict conditions. We chose to launch this research in Afghanistan given the large proportion of humanitarian need and significant impact of disasters within rural locations.

	Afghanistan
Global ranking of fragility and vulnerability (Fragile States Index)	6th highest in the world
Global ranking of humanitarian crisis and disaster risk (Inform Risk Score)	4th highest in the world
Number of people affected by disaster	1.4M people annually since 2000
Number of people facing severe food insecurity (IPC level 3 or higher)	13.8M people

Exploratory research conducted in Afghanistan—including interviews with community members such as farmers, elders, Kuchi pastoralists, IDPs, as well as with institutional actors— generated eight opportunity areas for innovation along with eight concrete solution ideas that capitalize on these opportunities. Each concept draws from field insights and combines elements across sectors—livelihoods, infrastructure, behavior, and governance—to offer integrated approaches to DRR. Below we present a brief overview of all opportunities and four example ideas, our research findings and full bank of solution ideas are available here.

Livelihoods First: Forecasting Alone Won’t Save Lives

Afghan communities already know when floods are coming. They have knowledge of weather patterns and can observe environmental changes. Yet early warning means little when families lack the resources to act on it. Without savings or assets, they can’t reinforce homes, relocate livestock, or store food. The problem isn’t a lack of information—it’s deep economic vulnerability. DRR programs must integrate income stabilization, so preparedness isn’t just an extra burden—it’s part of people’s daily survival strategies.

Upstream Interventions: Stopping Floods Before They Start

Most aid efforts focus on downstream recovery—rebuilding roads, relocating households, and repairing damage after floods hit—treating symptoms, not root causes. This reactive approach ignores the upstream areas where floodwaters originate and accelerate. Upstream flood prevention is more than hydrological logic—it is strategic resilience-building.

From Piecemeal Fixes to Lasting Infrastructure for Water Security

Too often, infrastructure projects are left incomplete, poorly maintained, or abandoned due to corruption and a lack of accountability. Dams, canals, and irrigation systems are often built by aid actors in isolation, without a coherent strategy for long-term water management. Meanwhile, communities facing extreme vulnerability—worsening floods, drying borewells, and declining pasture—are too focused on survival to manage these systems alone. Sustainable progress requires coordinated, accountable infrastructure planning—not one-off projects.

Break the Monopoly: Empower Middlemen to Deliver Fair Market Access

Afghan smallholders aren’t just vulnerable to drought or floods—they’re vulnerable to their own markets. In most rural areas, a handful of opportunistic middlemen set inflated prices for water, seeds, and inputs, locking farmers and herders into cycles of debt. The objective shouldn’t be to remove middlemen, but to reform the system—diversifying and empowering intermediaries to operate transparently and fairly, so markets can work for, not against, farmers.

Shared Water Reserves — Because Household Storage Alone Isn’t Enough

When every household struggles to store enough water, the solution isn’t more household storage—it’s large-scale community water reserves. Individual rainwater collection can meet short-term needs but falls short for agriculture, livestock, and entire villages—and may even heighten tensions over scarce resources. Large-scale, community-managed water reserves can stabilize supply, reduce conflict, and provide a foundation for collective resilience.

Save the Water Table Level – Encourage shifts in sustainable water management practices

Where groundwater remains available, overuse is rapidly depleting it. Solar pumps and unregulated irrigation are draining aquifers faster than they can recharge. Left unchecked, this will lead to widespread water scarcity, forced migration, conflict over scarce resources, and the collapse of agricultural livelihoods. Encouraging communities to adopt water-saving practices requires more than awareness—it demands tools, incentives, and shared norms to make conservation both possible and worthwhile.

Making Sustainable Pasture & Forest Management “Worth It” For Communities

Communities understand that deforestation worsens floods and that overgrazing degrades land, yet they often have no viable alternative. Firewood is essential for cooking and heating, and reducing herd sizes can deepen food insecurity. Traditional enforcement mechanisms—like community-led land-use agreements—are eroding under economic pressure. Sustainable land management must therefore be designed around incentives, ensuring that conservation brings immediate, tangible benefits for those who need them most.

Women & DRR: When Inclusion Is Not Innovation

Calls to "include women" in DRR often come with good intentions but fail to grapple with the lived realities of rural Afghanistan. Here, gender roles are shaped by centuries-old religious and cultural norms—not policy. True inclusion requires culturally viable pathways—spaces where women’s participation is meaningful, respectful, and contextually grounded, rather than symbolic or imposed.