Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

In Colombia, the Red Flags movement (vulnerable people hung red flags from their homes to signify a need for assistance e.g. food, finances) led to a rise in ad hoc voluntary contributions. Local government used this opportunity to develop an integrated system of relief. They:

• Created a single point of donation for all resources (human, in kind and financial), combining private and civil society donations to create a substantial, long-term resource
• Used big data including population age, location, data on links to existing social support to capture voluntary work undertaken, needs of individuals, and areas served
• Linked data and the centralised donation system to an economic committee comprised of local government, businesses, voluntary sector and charity sector to jointly decide allocation of finances to support voluntary organisations
• Developed a campaign for local businesses to 'adopt' a university student from one of the five city-owned universities - whereby the sector donated 2-3 semesters of student fees. The aim of the campaign was to support students' access to education to mitigate the long-term economic impacts of a lost generation of university graduates

This lesson was contributed by a Chief Resilience Officer in Colombia during project data collection.