Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative

With much of the country enjoying a good season, it is the ideal time to ensure your community is prepared for the next drought. That’s why we’re developing a program focused on strengthening and building drought preparedness in regional communities.

Thanks to the support of the Australian Government through the Future Drought Fund, over the next three years about $30 million will be invested in regional communities through the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative. The aims of the program are to strengthen and improve the ability of agriculture-dependent communities to adapt, reorganise or transform in response to changing temperature, increasing variability and scarcity of rainfall and changing seasons, for improved economic, environmental and social wellbeing.

It will do this by investing in projects that seek to strengthen social and community networking, support, engagement and wellbeing. There are five parts to the program, including grants, activities to strengthen leadership, access to expertise to support community-led activities, mentoring support and networking opportunities. It will be delivered by FRRR and the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF), who will each take the lead on different components of the program.

For a quick snapshot of this program, watch this video.

 Initiative Elements

Evaluation and Monitoring

Nous Group has been appointed to assess the impact of the Future Drought Fund’s Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative. The evaluation will take place over two and a half years. Nous Group will consult with the delivery partners, as well as other stakeholders, to develop the evaluation plan. They will then work closely with local leaders and with the delivery partners on the evaluation itself.

The evaluation will seek to understand to what extent has the Initiative enabled rural, regional and remote communities to prepare for future drought through strengthened social resilience, local capacity and capability building.

If you have any questions about the evaluation process, email futuredrought@frrr.org.au.

Future Drought Fund’s Helping Regional
Communities Prepare for Drought
(HRCPD) Initiative Evaluation Process Overview
Click on the image above to explore this snapshot of the evaluation approach.