The Global Infrastructure Resilience Report

The First Global Infrastructure Resilience (GIR) Report, published by the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in October 2023, marked a significant milestone in the global efforts to advance disaster and climate-resilient infrastructure. Addressing the unique challenges faced by Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), it outlined pathways for strengthening resilience by leveraging data from the first-ever fully probabilistic global risk assessment of infrastructure assets – the Global Infrastructure Risk Model & Resilience Index (GIRI). GIRI provided data-driven, country-specific risk metrics to support investments in infrastructure resilience, with pathways for scaling up finance, applying Nature-based Infrastructure Solutions (the thematic focus of the first edition), and strengthening infrastructure governance. Most importantly, by reframing resilience from a cost to an opportunity, the Report emphasized the idea of a “resilience dividend” that can generate long-term benefits for all stakeholders alike.

Following its success, the upcoming Second Global Infrastructure Resilience Report (GIR 2025), to be released at COP30 in November 2025, builds directly on this foundation while broadening both its scope and depth. It seeks to address some of the questions raised during the preparation and dissemination of the First Report, expanding its remit and strengthening the connections between risk analysis and the financial, institutional, ecological, and technological dimensions of resilient infrastructure. GIR 2025 further aims to reinforce the evidence base and advocate for upscaling resilient infrastructure by shifting the conversation from defining what the resilience dividend is to exploring how it can be effectively realized.

DRI Dialogue on Financial instruments and Nature-based Solutions for Resilient Infrastructure

In the lead-up to the launch of GIR 2025, CDRI is hosting a curated series of thematic dialogues on governance, finance, nature-based solutions, technology, and risk assessment. Intended to foster reflection and exchange of ideas, the series brings together global experts and practitioners, including contributors to GIR 2025 as authors and advisors, alongside other notable voices with deep expertise in these areas.

This discussion will spotlight how the dimensions of finance and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in particular, can be optimally leveraged to capture the full resilience dividend. The finance stream of GIR 2025 examines how infrastructure resilience can be strengthened through financial frameworks that mobilize investment before disasters, secure contingent capital for emergency response, and sustain recovery and reconstruction in ways that reduce future risks. It underscores that most current financial flows are directed toward post-disaster response, while far less is invested in pre-disaster risk reduction, leaving critical infrastructure exposed and long-term development prospects undermined, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) with limited fiscal space. Thus, resilience requires enhancing the capacities to absorb, respond, and recover from shocks for ensuring that financial strategies address the full cycle of risk management, altogether. To address these gaps, it introduces an Infrastructure Financial Resilience Framework that can enable governments and agencies to systematically assess risks, identify vulnerabilities, and mobilize financing across the entire cycle.

On the other hand, Nature-based solutions (NbS) provide an important avenue to strengthen all three capacities while delivering environmental and social co-benefits. However, scaling NbS adoption faces challenges around financing, valuation, and integration into infrastructure planning and procurement. Innovative instruments including blended finance, climate-resilient debt clauses, resilience bonds, and ecosystem service payments are critical to mobilize resources for both traditional infrastructure and NbS, helping de-risk investments, link financial flows to resilience outcomes, and ensure sustainable, long-term benefits.

Thus, by exploring the interplay between financial strategies and Nature-based Solutions, the Dialogue will identify practical pathways to shift investments from reactive spending to proactive, systemic resilience, while leveraging governance, institutional capacity, and innovative instruments to operationalize these approaches. Building on this rationale, this Dialogue will feature a fireside chat addressing the following questions: 

1. How does GIR 2025 build from the inaugural edition (2023), specifically in terms of financial instruments and Nature-based Solutions for Resilient Infrastructure?
2. Which financial instruments and mechanisms hold the greatest potential to shift investments from reactive spending toward proactive, systemic resilience in infrastructure?
3. How can Nature-based Solutions be effectively scaled beyond localized pilots to achieve systemic resilience impacts?
4. How can the economic value, risk reduction benefits, and co-benefits of NbS be effectively demonstrated to unlock sustained investment?