The Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program is co-funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and the NSW Government. It supports identified regions in NSW to develop drought resilience plans that can be implemented by councils and their communities to manage future risks.
Key information
- Status: Closed
- Grant amount: $450,000
- Application opened: 4 September 2023
- Application closed: 25 September 2023, 5:00 pm
Program objective
The Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program aims to build capability and empower regional communities to plan and act early to reduce and respond to drought risks.
The program is designed to support the development of drought plans which will consider:
- growing the self-reliance and drought resilience of regional communities including the agricultural sector
- improving natural capital of agricultural landscapes for better environmental outcomes
- strengthening the wellbeing and social capital of rural, regional and remote communities.
It will enable small council led consortia of between 2 and 6 councils to better prepare for, respond to and recover from drought.
This program is administered by Department of Regional NSW.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants are those councils in identified consortia listed in Appendix A of the program guidelines. The consortia should develop and submit one application for the project, nominating a single council as the lead applicant. The consortia can nominate a Joint Organisation to be the lead applicant, provided that an eligible LGA in the consortium is a member of the Joint Organisation.
Eligible planning types
The funds must be used to develop a Regional Drought Resilience Plan and to support its implementation. The activities identified in the plans must be consistent with the program objectives.
All applications need to demonstrate that the project can start immediately once the lead applicant is notified and completed by program delivery dates for Round 2:
- 24 October 2024 for final delivery of a Regional Drought Resilience Plan
Eligible project locations
The Regional Drought Resilience Plans and implementation activities must be for the LGAs making the application.
If specific projects are identified in the plan, the projects must be located in a participating LGA in the consortium.
The project must be designed to benefit the LGAs within the consortium.
Ineligible projects and costs
Ineligible project types include those that:
- use the planning funding for anything other than drought planning unless the Department of Regional NSW approves using planning underspend for implementation
- are not located in a the LGAs within the application or do not provide direct benefit to participating LGAs within the consortium
- are for the day-to-day delivery of essential or core council services
- duplicate grant funding from another NSW or Australian Government grant program for the same project.
Ineligible project costs include:
- financing, including debt financing, insurance or rental costs
- non-project related staff training and development costs
- ongoing or recurrent funding that is required beyond the stated timeframe of the project
- infrastructure projects or funding for any ongoing staff or operational costs
- retrospective funding to cover any project component that is already commenced or complete before the funding deed is executed.
Most recent recipients
What your application needs to include
For more information about the Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program, including key dates, eligibility and assessment criteria, please refer to the program guidelines. (PDF 3.92MB)
Prepare your application with this checklist
Information required in your application:
- a clear scope and timeline for the development and finalisation of a plan
- information and evidence detailing how the consortium will meet the program’s eligibility and assessment criteria in the plan
- basic organisation details including a Public Liability Insurance certificate
- proposed project costs
- response to all assessment criteria
- support letters from consortium council members outlining agreement with the nominated project lead and support for the application.
Address the eligibility criteria
To be eligible to apply, applicants must meet the following criteria:
- eligible applicants must be councils located in one of the eligible LGAs identified in the program guidelines. These LGAs are eligible because they have been identified as being vulnerable to drought, with a strong reliance on agriculture.
- a council consortium must consist of 2 to 6 local governments in alignment with the consortium groupings listed in the program guidelines. Each consortium should form and submit one application for the project.
Address the assessment criteria
Eligible applications will be assessed against the following criteria. All applications should demonstrate:
Deliverability
- A clear project design and delivery method which will achieve a Regional Drought Resilience Plan that is community led and owned by:
- facilitating co-design of the plan where councils partner together and with their community members, to harness the diverse region-specific knowledge and skills required to address economic, environmental, and social objectives
- applying or developing an evidence base to inform actions and upskilling community members to support implementation
- using best-practice resilience planning principles including consideration of adaptation pathways and scenario testing, and
- building on or complementing existing strategic plans, such as the Regional Economic Development Strategies.
- Demonstrated resourcing capacity and capability to deliver the project on time and within budget (by council and/or with other support entities).
Alignment to project objectives
- Applications must demonstrate how the project aligns with the program’s purpose and objectives as listed in the program guidelines.
Local benefits
- Address how their regional communities will benefit from:
- understanding the broader impacts of drought specific to their local region
- being able to identify and plan for the impacts of drought
- being in a stronger position to adapt to changes and take advantage of opportunities as they arise
- building their economic, environmental and social resilience to future droughts
- learning from each other and sharing what’s working and not working
- forming even stronger partnerships within and between regions and having local drought engagement strategies
- having access to best-practice data to make better decisions
- improving natural resource management across the regions.
Projects will be assessed as a ‘Yes/No’ against the assessment criteria. Projects will not be competitively assessed across eligible LGAs.
Frequently asked questions
I’m in one of the identified regions, how can I get involved?
- You should get in touch with your consortium members. Alternatively, email the Department of Regional NSW Drought Team and we can facilitate contact.
Can the consortium get support to develop their plan?
- Yes. Successful council consortia will have the option to enlist experts to help design and deliver the plans. Partnerships are encouraged between councils with experts, universities and researchers, to do the planning. Partnerships should only be pursued once the application is approved and a funding deed is signed between the Department of Regional NSW and the lead council / Joint Organisation for the consortium.
What other program support will be provided by the Department of Regional NSW?
- Frequently Asked Questions will be kept up to date with program guidance. Program advice and support materials will be provided to participants by the Department of Regional NSW to support the delivery of the program. The Department of Regional NSW will also share insights about the program and planning to help link related projects and share lessons learnt.
How are the Regional Drought Resilience Planning program grants structured?
- The program provides funding for eligible consortia to:
- develop a Regional Drought Resilience Plan following a partnership and co-design process with communities, and
- begin implementation activities identified within the Regional Drought Resilience Plan (this is contingent on the Regional Drought Resilience Plan and an Implementation Plan being approved by the Department of Regional NSW).
When do Regional Drought Resilience Plans need to be completed?
- Consortia funded through Round Two of the Regional Drought Resilience Planning program must complete their Regional Drought Resilience Plans by 24 October 2024. To be completed, plans must be independently reviewed by the CSIRO and their feedback incorporated. Following this, plans can be approved by the Department of Regional NSW and the Australian Government.
When do Regional Drought Resilience Plan implementation activities need to be completed?
Regional Drought Resilience Plans must be completed and approved by Department of Regional NSW before implementation activities can be submitted for funding via an Implementation Plan. Implementation Plans must be approved by Department of Regional NSW before implementation funding is released.
Regional Drought Resilience Planning program Round 2 supported Implementation activities must be completed by 30 May 2025.
After the application is submitted
Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application on Monday 20 November 2023.
Support and contact
More information about the program can be found at Regional Drought Resilience Planning.
Contact the Department of Regional NSW at drought@regional.nsw.gov.au