Stories of Impact A series highlighting achievements in disaster risk management Prioritizing Climate Resilient Transport in Belize REGION: LATIN AMERICAN AND THE PROJECT DESCRIPTION: CARIBBEAN FOCUS: RISK IDENTIFICATION, RISK Safe roads and reliable transportation are critical in REDUCTION, RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE the event of a natural disaster. The Global Facility for CHANGE Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), along with COUNTRY: BELIZE the World Bank, has been working closely with the Government of Belize to increase the climate resilience of the road network and manage disaster risk by identifying priority investments. Through an innovative methodology that includes participatory processes and advanced data collection RESULTS: and analysis, the Government is informing targeted • Engaged 35 agencies to build climate investments from international donors, including a resilience in the transport sector. $30 million Climate Resilient Infrastructure Project • Identified four critical regions with the through the World Bank – part of a transformative highest flood susceptibility for climate- resilient interventions. shift towards a strategic, cost-efficient investment • Developed a Road Network and Asset approach to climate and disaster risk in Belize. Database – a first in Belize’s history – to ensure road planning and maintenance is risk-informed and more efficient. • The methodology developed and piloted in Belize has been shared with transport and disaster risk specialists in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific to inform future resilient transport efforts globally. CONTEXT: Belize is highly vulnerable to disaster risk, and especially climate-related hazards. Average annual losses from hurricanes alone are estimated at nearly $7.7 million, which may increase with climate change. Detioration in transport infrastructure exacerbates Belize’s disaster vulnerability – with limited redundancy in road networks and 70% of the population living near primary and secondary roads, flooding on roadways can cut access to emergency response, as well as social and economic movement. A lack of reliable data, however, has severely limited the Government’s ability to make informed investments, leading to a request for support from GFDRR and the World Bank to identify key opportunities to build transport resilience. APPROACH: Due to the unique challenge of a data scarcity, World Bank and GFDRR teams rolled out a unique multi-criteria evaluation process, engaging a wide range of stakeholders across seven indicators to help prioritize the socio-economic and climate-risk “We are very pleased with the outcomes of the impact of roadways. Teams also worked with engineers from multi-criteria evaluation of Belize’s road network the Government of Belize to analyze flood susceptibility. The that was conducted by the Government of Belize methodology was tailored to draw from existing data, expert and the World Bank. The results influenced our and local knowledge, and strategic survey processes to make decisions on which roads to invest in and ensured up for information gaps, ultimately leading to the creation of a that the selected investments will improve the robust geospatial model to further enable decision-making. country’s resilience to climate change and climate Analysis at each stage was conducted with technical variability. The process was participatory and representatives from 35 separate agencies, then validated by involved both technical officers and Chief Executive participating CEOs. The Cabinet endorsed the final results and Officers. The participatory nature of the process selected one of the identified priority areas for investments certainly facilitated the adoption of the results.” under the World Bank financed project – ensuring balanced, targeted risk-reduction efforts. - Ms. Yvonne Hyde, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Economic Development NEXT STEPS: To ensure the sustainability of the investments the project enabled, the team is conducting a Transport Asset LESSONS LEARNED: Management technical assistance program with resources Lack of data should not limit engagement with countries from GFDRR to provide continued expert guidance and support. on information-based decision-making. One of the Teams are also developing an online interface to make it easier biggest challenges to development is the lack of reliable for policy-makers to use the data collected under the project. and adequate data. To address this, the team applied Moreover, in an effort to spread lessons learned from the methods that combined quantitative and qualitative groundbreaking effort, GFDRR and the World Bank are also information, rigorously compiled existing information, and developing a Practitioners’ Guide aimed at providing guidance supplemented with new data acquired from teams on the for the prioritization of climate-resilient investments in data- ground. scarce environments, based on the process piloted in Belize. High-level decision makers should be intimately involved in identifying investment priorities. In this project, more than 15 CEOs and 35 technical representatives were actively Contact engaged in the evaluation process. Having executive-level Frederico Pedroso fpedroso@worldbank.org engagement led to the full ownership and endorsement of Learn more at www.gfdrr.org *ALL MONETARY VALUES IN USD the results, leading to sustainable investments.