Resilience Rating System: A Methodology for Building and Tracking Resilience to Climate Change

Resilience is the capacity to prepare for disruptions, recover from shocks, and grow from a disruptive experience. The World Bank Group has developed a Resilience Rating System that provides guidance and specific criteria to assess resilience along two complementary dimensions. 1. Resilience of the project rates the confidence that expected investment outcomes will be achieved, based on whether a project has considered climate and disaster risks in its design, incorporated adaptation measures, and demonstrated economic viability despite climate risks. 2. Resilience through the project rates a project’s contribution to adaptive development pathways based on whether investments are targeted at increasing climate resilience in the broader community or sector. The objectives of the Resilience Rating System are to: (a) Better inform decision makers, investors, and other stakeholders on the resilience of projects and investments; (b) Create incentives for more widespread and effective climate adaptation through enhanced transparency and simpler disclosure; (c) Identify best practices to allow proven lessons on resilience to be scaled up across sectors and countries; (d) Guide project developers on the best ways to manage risk and improve the quality of projects, while allowing flexibility for different sectoral and country contexts. The resilience rating methodology, from C through to A+ in each dimension, can serve as a guide for institutions, public and private sector participants.