Inclusive Climate and Disaster Risk Planning

2025-2026 | Philippines, Provinces of Bohol and Samar

As climate impacts intensify, communities in British Columbia, Alberta, and around the globe are increasingly focused on climate-resilient planning and emergency preparedness. McElhanney’s involvement in the Governance for Climate and Disaster Resilience (Gov-CDR) project in the Philippines demonstrates how inclusive, evidence-based, climate-risk planning can support community decisions before disasters occur.

Governance for Climate and Disaster Resilience (Gov-CDR), Philippines

The Philippines ranks as the world’s most disaster-prone country according to the 2025 World Risk Index, with flooding posing a major risk to communities, ecosystems, and livelihoods. Funded by Global Affairs Canada and implemented by Alinea International, Gov-CDR is a six-year initiative working with local governments in some of the Philippines’ most climate-vulnerable provinces to strengthen resilience to natural and climate-induced hazards.

Gov-CDR supports national and local governments to better understand, prioritize, and manage climate and disaster risks through structured assessment and governance strengthening. The project operates across six provinces—Kalinga, Aklan, Bohol, Samar, Bukidnon, and Davao de Oro—and emphasizes integrating gender equality, diversity, and social inclusion into climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction planning by listening to the experiences of women, men, and underrepresented groups, recognizing that climate impacts are felt differently across communities.

McElhanney’s Role

McElhanney’s Clare Share, P.Eng., and Deanna Liao, P.Eng., contributed as Canadian Technical Advisors (CTAs), providing technical expertise in climate and disaster risk assessment processes that support water-dependent systems and flood-prone communities.

Their contributions focused on:

• Supporting risk assessment scoping and prioritization for local governments
• Facilitating consequence scoring, risk ranking, and adaptation options workshops with diverse interest holders
• Integrating gender equality, diversity, and social inclusion into risk analysis and adaptation planning
• Strengthening local capacity through hands-on, collaborative, learn-by-doing approaches

Advancing Climate-Resilient Futures

Through this project, local governments and partners in the Philippines have embedded equity and inclusion into resilience decision-making and built governance structures capable of sustaining long-term water and ecosystem resilience.

Learn more about this project on Alinea International’s website.

Community-level Climate Risk and Resilience in Western Canada

Communities across BC and Alberta face similar challenges:

• Flood and climate risk that crosses municipal boundaries
• Increasing emphasis on planning for a more climate resilient future
• The need to align climate risk assessments with capital planning and infrastructure investment
• Incorporating community engagement to foster buy in on climate adaptation approaches

Gov-CDR illustrates how formal governance structures, shared risk understanding, and inclusive planning can help communities adapt to a more climate resilient future.

McElhanney’s contribution to Gov-CDR reflects our commitment to helping governments plan, govern, and invest in a future that is resilient, inclusive, and prepared for a changing climate. Our advisory role reflects our broader approach to helping BC and Alberta Communities move from data to defensible, community-supported investment decisions. Ultimately, projects that center equity in decision-making ensure that local priorities, knowledge, and voices, especially those often left out, shape climate resilience actions.

McElhanney provided

• Climate & Disaster Risk Advisory
  • Climate and risk assessment scoping
  • Disaster risk prioritization support
  • Flood Risk Management advisory
  • Watershed resilience planning advisory
• Planning & Decision Support
  • Consequence assessment facilitation
  • Risk ranking workshop facilitation
  • Adaptation options evaluation support
• Engagement
  • Inclusive interest holder engagement support