The Building Resilience to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) project was officially launched at the Third U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai on 16 March. The event was opened with a speech by the UK Minister of State for Development, Demond Swayne, who had this to say about BRACED:

"What makes it unique is that it brings developmental and humanitarian approaches together to focus on addressing challenges of climate change, to address the very complex problems facing some of the poorest countries, including Ethiopia, South Sudan, Burma and countries in the Sahel region."

What is important about BRACED, he said is that it targets the most vulnerable people in the most vulnerable countries; brings together climate, humanitarian and development expertise and financing, particularly in the Sahel; forges a series of new partnerships for resilience; and makes a major investment in knowledge, evidence and learning.

Other key speakers on a launch panel included:

• Princess Abzeita Djigma Martens, senior adviser of the President for external relationships and gender, Burkina Faso
• Nicole Angelina Zan/Yelemou, Ministre de l'Action Sociale et de la Solidarité Nationale du Burkina Faso
• Roger Yates, Plan International

Want to read more? Please see our blogs and stories from Sendai:

Ten things to know about the Sendai disaster risk reduction deal

Failure to link up with other global agreements could spell disaster for Sendai deal

New global disaster plan sets targets to curb risk, losses

And please see our series of video interviews from Sendai:

ODI's Tom Mitchell speaks about BRACED innovation

IPCC's Chris Field speaks on BRACED and climate adaptation

ADPC's Atiq Kainan Ahmed speaks about importance of BRACED for Asia

MercyCorps' Dominic Graham talks about BRACED project in Ethiopia