On September 8, 2023, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Morocco, with its epicenter in the High Atlas Mountain range, approximately 75 kilometers southeast of Marrakesh. Claiming the lives of nearly 3,000 people and injuring more than 18,000, the earthquake was Morocco’s deadliest in 120 years.

With the aim of informing the country’s resilient recovery and reconstruction efforts in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the government of Morocco requested a rapid assessment of the post-disaster damage using the GFDRR and World Bank Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) methodology.

Within just three weeks of the earthquake, a technical team supported by GFDRR estimated direct physical damage from the earthquake at a fraction of the cost of traditional assessments. The team also estimated which areas and sectors were affected most. The team made these estimates by broadly adhering to the GRADE methodology, which included analyzing satellite imagery, damage data, and damage assessment reports and using hazard modeling to re-create ground motion from the earthquake. The team further relied on analysis and validation of a database of building and infrastructure exposure to the earthquake. The team’s data collection and analysis spanned all areas that the earthquake affected, covering 19 provinces and prefectures.

The team’s findings were immediately shared with the government of Morocco and informed its design of an $11.8 billion resilient recovery and reconstruction plan for affected areas. The findings also helped inform the government’s engagement with the World Bank, leading to rapid mobilization of pre-arranged disaster risk financing to support recovery and reconstruction. In total, more than $300 million of pre-arranged financing was mobilized less than one month after the disaster, helping ensure that the initial stages of the recovery were adequately resourced and able to proceed without delay. Morocco’s disaster risk financing insurance program, the design and development of which the Bank and GFDRR have supported, made the pre-arranged financing possible.

GFDRR support for Morocco in the aftermath of the September 2023 earthquake builds on the facility’s longstanding efforts to advance the country’s resilience-building. Since 2016, technical assistance from the facility has proved instrumental to World Bank engagement with Morocco on the strengthening of the country’s national resilience fund, which finances disaster risk reduction projects at national and local levels. Recent engagement has also included support for two pilot cities, Fez and Mohammedia, in preparing urban resilience strategies and action plans to develop a holistic, integrated approach to mainstreaming DRM at the municipal level.