2021 Annual Report

Learn more about Partners for Action (P4A)’s research and partnerships in our 2021 Annual Report (PDF). We’ve highlighted some recent projects and new activities here.

2021 Projects & Partnerships:

Inclusive Resilience

with the Canadian Red Cross, funded by Public Safety Canada

For communities to move forward in healthy, proactive, and inclusive ways they first must understand what information people are paying attention to and how they want to receive it. This study asks the all-important question: how do people learn about and prepare for floods, wildfires and earthquakes in their communities? The end goal is to improve messaging, in all forms, around these emergencies – including planning and recovery. This study is underpinned by the development of a Social Vulnerability Index that enables analysis of the combined impacts of exposure to hazard risk and socio-economic vulnerability.

Property Buyouts

funded by Public Safety Canada and Max Bell Foundation

To implement buyouts effectively, decision makers require evidence-based policy advice about how to design programs that maximize economic efficiency, political viability and social acceptability. With grant funding from the Max Bell Foundation, this project will draw lessons from current and past buyout programs and highlight the tradeoffs that governments must consider when designing new programs.

Just Green Cities

with Windfall Ecology Centre, funded by the SDG Funding Program at Employment and Social Development Canada

This project aligns with Canada’s 2030 Agenda National Strategy, a plan for implementing Canada’s commitment as a signatory to the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). P4A partnered with Windfall Ecology Centre and Possibilian Ventures to hold four stakeholder workshops and investigate three municipal infrastructure issues and their relevance to the SDGs. The resulting cases focus on:

• fleet electrification
• stormwater management
• net zero buildings

Read the report Just Green Cities report.

Looking Ahead:

The way forward is with the people who are most impacted by flooding. P4A will continue to work and impact change through evidence-based, inclusive, impactful research, resources, and policy recommendations.

1. Community-engaged flood risk awareness and preparedness
   1. Flood Smart Canada is the go-to resource for flood resilience resources
   2. Community-level engagement through workshops and place-based activities
   3. Pilot and scale engagement approaches with vulnerable populations
2. Partnering for adaptation
   1. Influence collective action – policy influence, policy implementation (e.g. Property Buyouts and Managed Retreat)
   2. Raise awareness of nature-based solutions (NbS)
   3. Support municipalities on appropriate solutions, where they can and should be prioritized
3. Flood resilience planning and foresight
   1. Positioning flood resiliency as climate action – alignment with 2030 SDG and 2050 decarbonization goals
   2. Investment in stakeholder relationships – collapsing silos between research, policy and sustainable finance
   3. Integrating equity-based perspectives

This shift in focus to a collective action approach requires us to carve out a niche in community-based programming that prioritizes inclusive resilience, opening doors to new voices working for change. In this way, Partners for Action reinforces the notion that flood resiliency is climate action, climate adaptation and climate justice.