Jamaica: Disaster Risk Financing Technical Assistance

Report on Risk Finance in Jamaica. Photo credit: World Bank

Context and Objectives 

This project aimed at better identifying and managing fiscal risks associated with natural disasters in Jamaica.

Main Activities and results

• Understanding and quantifying fiscal risk from disasters
• Analyzing and reviewing existing market conditions for the provision of catastrophe risk insurance
• Analyzing and building a cost-effective sovereign financial protection strategy against disasters
• Integrating disaster risk into a comprehensive risk management strategy
• South-South knowledge exchange: Collaborating and sharing lessons learnt under the ACP-EU Program with other Small Island Developing States

The following results were achieved:

• A Country Disaster Risk Profile was delivered. Based on baseline data on historical losses and disaster-related government expenditures, and a country profile for earthquake and windstorm risks at the national level, the document helped the Government of Jamaica to better understand and quantify the asset value of Jamaica’s building stock and of potential future disaster losses to Jamaica. 
• A final report on recommendations for a disaster risk finance strategy was published, accompanied by a short video on these recommendations. The report was based in part on a report on the domestic insurance market, and by discussions with local insurance companies. The recommendations on the strategy were discussed with the Government, and the Ministry of Finance recognized the importance of mainstreaming disaster risk finance into budget, fiscal policy and debt management considerations.
• In October 2017, a day with in-depth training for technical experts, as well as with strategic discussions on disaster risk finance strategy implementation for policy makers, was organized with regional stakeholders. 

Partnerships and Coordination

The World Bank team took advantage of the memorandum of understanding with Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) for sharing data and collaborations. The team had discussions with representatives from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Department for International Development (DfID), UK Government; Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Center (CARTAC). CDEMA and CARTAC participated also in the regional workshop organized under activity 5.

Useful Links

In the frame of this project a video was produced describing how the ACP-EU NDRR Program has supported the Governments of Belize, Grenada, Jamaica and Saint Lucia to better understand and manage the fiscal impacts of disasters and to identify cost-effective financial protection options. The video is available here.