Blogs

Pacific Island Countries (PICs) face critical challenges to attain financial resilience against disasters, and rely on aid as an income stream. This can limit their post-disaster financing options and place constraints on the national budget. Alternatives—such as risk transfers—could be used to reduce the drain on limited public funds.

The approval of a successor to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in Sendai, Japan, in March 2015 will mark the beginning of a new era for the disaster risk management (DRM) community.

Social protection specialists, disaster risk managers, risk finance practitioners and climate change experts at the World Bank Group sat down together recently to discuss the role of social protection systems in addressing the human side of disaster and climate risks.

This week, the Resilience Dialogue, bringing together representatives from developing countries, donor agencies and multilateral development banks, will focus on financing to build resilience to natural disasters.

​​Imagine you are a city official who wants to ensure all future infrastructure and urban development in your city is climate- and disaster-sensitive. The first step is to understand the natural hazards of today and tomorrow—flood, storm surge, sea level rise, etc.—and how they could impact your city.

Disaster losses can have a severe impact on the economies of small island nations. In 2004, after Hurricane Ivan hit Grenada, a state of only 133 square miles in size, total damages were estimated around US$900 million, equivalent to 200% of national GDP at the time. While Grenada’s experience is extreme, SIDS across the world have suffered disaster impacts which reached significant losses in terms of their GDP.

A commitment to building resilience, paired with accurate and actionable risk information, can help bring about a safer world before costly disasters, often with substantial losses in lives and livelihoods, impact our most vulnerable communities.