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As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues, governments and emergency services are focusing on immediate needs: boosting capacity in hospitals, addressing hunger, and protecting firms and families from eviction and bankruptcy. The majority of the funds flowing so far from the World Bank, the IMF, other regional development banks, or central banks seek to provide funds for protective gear at hospitals, stabilize financial institutions, pay companies to provide goods and services to essential workers, or provide direct cash support to households.

The World Bank plays a major role to support post-conflict recovery and reconstruction worldwide. It is scaling up its support to sub-national and local planning authorities and municipal services in countries such as Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, and Myanmar. However, reconstruction efforts often face challenges such as time constraints, weak implementation capacity, a lack of social engagement, and ineffective cookie-cutter approaches.

With heavy ongoing investments in climate resilience and flood risk management, now is the critical time for Sri Lanka to build an effective flood- and climate-resilience system, benefitting from global experiences.