Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative
BUILDING DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS IN REGIONAL COMMUNITIES
A partnership between FRRR and the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
No matter the conditions, it's vital to ensure your community is prepared for the next drought. That’s why FRRR and ARLF designed a program focussed on strengthening and building drought preparedness in regional communities.
Thanks to the support of the Australian Government through the Future Drought Fund, between 2023 and 2025 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 involves investing in projects that seek to strengthen social and community networking, support, engagement and wellbeing. There are five parts to the Initiative, 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.
Next phase set to launch soon
On 28 May 2025, the Honourable Julie Collins MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, announced the extension of the Future Drought Fund’s Communities Program for another four years, with $36 million in new support from the Government. This funding will help enable people in agriculture-dependent communities to build and maintain their social resilience to drought.
Initiative Elements
Community Impact Program
Grants between $200,000 and $500,000 provided by FRRR, plus on the ground support.
Leadership Development Activities
Impact Grant recipients can also access a range of leadership development activities, offered by ARLF.
Expertise Pool
Access to specialist expertise (curated by FRRR).
Small Network Grants
Grants available to develop and deliver one-off events or initiatives (led by FRRR).
National Mentoring Program
Bringing together those who want to contribute to their community’s drought resilience with experienced mentors (led by ARLF).
National Learning Network
Connecting individuals and organisations committed to building drought resilience, so they can learn from and support one another (led by ARLF).
Evaluation and Monitoring
Nous Group is working with FRRR and ARLF to evaluate the impact of the Future Drought Fund’s Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative across two and a half years. The evaluation will seek to understand to what extent the Initiative has enabled rural, regional and remote communities to prepare for future drought through strengthened social resilience, local capacity and capability building.
Nous Group has prepared a mid-term report which outlines the interim evaluation of activities in the 16 months to April 2024. It combines findings of the five streams of the Initiative which include grants, leadership development activities, including mentoring, an online network and access to expert advice. The report confirms good progress is being made towards strengthening community capacity and the social resilience of agriculture-dependent communities to prepare for the impacts of drought in more than 250 locations across Australia.
To see the findings of the mid-term evaluation you can access the full report below, along with deep dive impact case studies and the overall approach we are taking to learn of the Initiative’s impact.
- Mid-Term Evaluation Report
- Mid-Term Evaluation Report Deep Dive Impact Case Studies
- Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan
- Evaluation Placemat
- Video Summary
If you have any questions about the evaluation process, email [email protected].
The video above provides a summary overview of the Mid-Term Evaluation report.