Before the Rescue Arrives: Citizens as the First Line of Resilience

Floods, wars, pandemics – when crisis strikes, the first responders are often not institutions, but neighbours. How can we build societies that mobilise before being told to act? Drawing on lessons from World Cleanup Day’s global network spanning over 190 countries and the remarkable transformation of Ukraine’s cleanup movement into a wartime humanitarian lifeline, this session explores how civic action builds resilience long before a crisis begins. Bringing together perspectives from civil society, government and the UN, the discussion challenges a fundamental assumption: what if our strongest crisis-response infrastructure is not physical, but social? How can governments recognise, strengthen and invest in citizen networks as an essential part of climate adaptation and resilience?