PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: 88004 (The report # is automatically generated by IDU and should not be changed) Project Name Economic Assessment of Disasters in the Pacific Region East Asia and the Pacific Region Country Pacific Islands Sector Public administration- Water, sanitation and flood protection (80%); Flood protection (20%) Lending Instrument IPF Project ID P144210 {If Add. Fin.} Parent Project ID Borrower(s) Applied Geo-Science And Technology Division (SOPAC) Implementing Agency Applied Geo-Science And Technology Division (SOPAC) Environmental Screening [ ]A [ ]B [ x]C [ ]FI [ ]TBD (to be determined) Category Date PID Prepared 10th April, 2014 Estimated Date of Appraisal n/a Completion Estimated Date of Board n/a Approval Concept Review Decision Following the review of the concept, the decision was taken to proceed with the preparation of the operation. Introduction and Context A. Country Context 1. The Pacific islands region is recognized as one of the most natural hazard-prone regions in the world. Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs) are subject to a range (and often a combination of) geophysical hazards (tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) and hydro- meteorological hazards (cyclones, storm surges, severe storms, droughts). Given the typically small size, relative isolation, highly dispersed populations and narrow economic base of PICTs, Pacific island communities have high vulnerability to these hazards and consequently face innumerable disasters, causing significant impacts to lives, livelihoods and economies. For example, between 1970 and 2007, Fiji experienced 41 documented flood events, which affected at least 220,000 people and killed 88. The tsunami that wreaked havoc on Samoa in September 2009 resulted in 155 deaths, the destruction of the homes of some 5,300 people (2.5 percent of the population) and several coastal villages, and the loss of 20 percent of hotel rooms. Climate change is likely to increase the frequency and severity of some hydro-meteorological hazards in the Pacific although the precise nature of the relationship between global warming and extreme events remains uncertain. To holistically address the high vulnerability of PICTS, the need for integrated policy and planning approaches to disaster risk reduction (DRR), disaster risk management (DRM), climate change adaptation (CCA) and development is becoming recognized as a priority in the region. 2. The World Bank’s 2012 publication ‘Acting Today for Tomorrow: a Policy and Practice Note for Climate- and Disaster- Resilient Development in the Pacific Islands Region’ (PPN) confirmed that much of PICTs’ high vulnerability to hazards is a result of poorly planned socio- economic and spatial development. This is caused, in part, by thin capacity to adequately assess the economic impacts of disasters across sectors and use that information to inform development policy and planning, post disaster planning, and specific disaster risk management strategies. The Economic Assessment of Disasters in the Pacific project (EADP) addresses this capacity gap by providing technical assistance to the region in the use of the Damage and Loss Assessment (DALA)/Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) methodology. B. Sectoral and Institutional Context 3. Disasters have economic impacts across multiple sectors in PICTs including agriculture, environment, health, tourism, transport, infrastructure, water supply and sanitation, and urban and rural development. Based on national reporting of disasters by individual nations, the World Bank estimates that reported natural disasters cost the Pacific Islands region US$2.8 billion in the 1990s alone (2004 terms). Probabilistic risk assessments of the cost to buildings, infrastructure and cash crops in the Pacific from the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI) estimate potential disaster damage to be in the region of US$284 million annually. 4. However, the economic value ascribed to disasters in the Pacific may be inconsistently and/or only partially measured because countries lack resources and capacity to assess different sectors post-disaster and to apply a standardized assessment methodology. As a result: i) Assessment values may be misleading; ii) Post disaster needs may not be fully informed, and; iii) Disaster risk management strategies to minimise disasters and improve the resilience of national development may be less than optimal. 5. Increasing the accuracy of disaster damage, loss and needs assessments addresses a number of priorities in key regional and national policies and strategies. The EADP is directly in line with the Pacific’s regional strategy for disaster risk management entitled ‘An Investment for Sustainable Development in Pacific Island Countries: Disaster Risk Framework for Action 2005- 2015’(‘RFA’). This strategy identifies six themes deemed critical for PICTs derived from the global Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA). In particular, the EADP progresses the following themes: Theme 1: Governance – Organisational, Institutional, Policy and Decision Making Framework; Theme 2: Knowledge, Information, Public Awareness and Education, and; Theme 4: Planning for Effective Preparedness, Response and Recovery. 6. The EADP also contributes to the Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change (2005-2015) (PIFACC) by increasing capacity to assess the impact of climate change related disasters in the region and plan for more resilient development. Most PICTs have developed or are developing National Action Plans (NAPs) for DRR or Joint National Action Plans (JNAPs) for DRR and CCA, consistent with the RFA and PIFACC. By increasing the ability to accurately assess disaster losses, the EADP will increase the importance given to disaster and climate risk in national and sectoral planning and budgetary processes, via NAPs/JNAPs. 7. The DALA/PDNA framework provides a consistent approach to valuing and responding to the impacts of a disaster across a variety of sectors and at a number of levels (sectoral, national). The framework is supported as part of a three party agreement between the World Bank, the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) and would provide certainty to key partners post disaster on the methodology, content/quality behind disaster assessments. DALA/PDNA application in the Pacific has been limited to three occasions: in Samoa following the 2009 tsunami, and; in Samoa and Fiji in 2012 following Tropical Cyclone Evan. C. Relationship to CAS 8. Individual Pacific Country Partnership Strategies are generally based around the themes of (i) encouraging greater regional and global integration, and (ii) building resilience. All prioritize reducing disaster- and climate- risk as part of building overall socio-economic resilience. All contain objectives relating to increasing local and regional capacity for natural hazard management and mainstreaming DRR into policy and investment planning. Increasing quick disaster response capacity also features. This project aligns with these objectives by increasing regional and national capacity for: i) post disaster recovery planning; ii) improved mitigation of future events, and; iii) improved comparisons of disaster trends in the region for future disaster risk management. Additionally, the use of a more comprehensive and internationally recognized assessment approach may expedite post disaster recovery assistance. 9. The EADP aligns with the following strategic priorities for DRR/CCA programming in the Pacific: i) strengthening evidence-based decision-making capacity; ii) resilient development, and; iii) resilient reconstruction, or ‘building back better’. Proposed Development Objective(s) A. Proposed Development Objective(s) 10. The Project Development Objective (PDO) for this operation is to increase the capacity of key sector experts in the Pacific region to conduct disaster damage, loss and needs assessments. B. Key Results 11. Success in achieving the PDO will be measured by the following two PDO-level indicators:  PDO-1: Key sector experts trained in DALA/PDNA (number)  PDO-2: PDNAs conducted throughout the life of the project are developed in accordance with the standard methodology. Preliminary Description 1. Description Given the high-frequency of disasters in the Pacific region most Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) have well established rapid initial damage assessment procedures. However, many PICTS have expressed a need for higher capability in conducting more complex and comprehensive Damage and Loss Assessment (DALA) and Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA). A sub-regional workshop conducted in March 2011 identified that while considerable interest in increasing capability in DALA/PDNA exists in the region, effectively training and maintaining country-based teams may not be practical for some PICTs, especially those with low disaster return rates. The Economic Assessment of Disasters in the Pacific project (EADP) addresses this gap by providing technical assistance to the region in the use of the DALA/PDNA. This regional approach will be based on i) developing a regional solution to in-country capacity needs; ii) combining training with field testing, and; iii) supporting a mechanism for ‘training of trainers’. The project has the following components: Component 1: Establishment of a Regional Pool of Experts in DALA/PDNA application (US$344,400, of which bank financed US227,600): This component will develop a regional technical backstopping facility to support national governments in the event of a disaster. The experts will also act as future trainers in DALA/PDNA for the region. This will be achieved through the following sub-components: Sub-component 1.1: Identification and recruitment of experts: Criteria (core skills) will be developed for the selection of experts to provide technical assistance in DALA/PDNA application. At least 16 experts from key sectors in participating PICTs will be identified through consultation with national, regional and international agencies. Up to 4 additional experts from regional, international and non- governmental organisations will also be identified. Sub-component 1.2: Developing Pacific training materials: Existing training materials for DALA/PDNA are not tailored to the Pacific hazard, socio-economic and geographical context. A small team from the sector expert pool identified in C1.1, assisted by an international expert, will work to tailor existing training materials, exercises and case studies to a form that better reflects the ability of PICTs to absorb and apply a DALA. Training materials provided by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) will form the foundation of Pacific materials. Sub-component 1.3: Training sector experts in DALA/PDNA application: Utilizing the Pacific training materials developed in C1.2, the full pool of up to 20 key sector experts recruited will receive formal training in DALA/PDNA to advanced level. Training will be conducted by up to two international experts. Sub-component 1.4: Technical assistance in DALA/PDNA application: The subcomponent will provide trained experts with practical hands-on experience in conducting assessments by supporting the delivery of DALAs/PDNAs in disaster affected countries. In particular, it will i) mobilize up to two international experts in DALA/PDNA application (likely from the GFDRR) to guide disaster assessment in Pacific island countries, and; ii) mobilize up to five regional experts to contribute to disaster assessment in up to three disaster events or simulations (in the case that there are no significant disaster events during the three year period of the project). Overlap will be provided to ensure that at least one of the sector experts from the team selected to support an in-country assessment will attend the next assessment to provide the benefit of their experience from a Pacific perspective. Through this support, regional experts will eventually be able to themselves lead assessments. This activity would also make use of the rapid damage estimation component of the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI) phase 3. This activity would model potential direct damage to buildings, major infrastructure and cash crops and provide sector assessments of estimated losses which would be used to inform the initial phases of the DALA/PDNA exercise. Conversely, the actual figures from the completed DALA assessments would assist to calibrate PCRAFI loss functions. Component 2: Knowledge Sharing (US$549,500, of which Bank financed US$327,000 ) Sub-component 2.1: Develop Pacific guidance manuals for DALA/PDNA: Experiences and state-of-the-art case studies conducted through C1.4 will be incorporated into training materials developed in C1.2 to develop a Pacific-specific handbook for conducting DALA/PDNA and other associated knowledge products. The work will be conducted through face to face planning sessions between the international expert(s) guiding training/application and a small selection of the sector experts involved in the project. Sub-component 2.2: Training of trainers: This component will support trained experts to become trainers themselves. Materials generated in C2.1 will be used to train relevant newly qualified sector experts in how to train others to apply DALA/PDNA in practice (with guidance). This training will be conducted in tandem with trained pedagogues from The Asia Foundation program hosted at SPC that already provides disaster risk management training. The pool of trained trainers will then be used to supplement the regional pool of experts and eventually replace them as these experts move out of the region. Trained experts in the Pacific move onto other jobs continuously. One-off training is therefore not sufficient to ensure sustainability of the regional backstopping mechanism or sustained understanding by host agencies of the value and application of DALA/PDNA for recovery and DRR purposes. To replenish the expert pool and reinforce capacity, training of experts in DALA/PDNA and training of trainers will be repeated over time. Component 3: Operations and Administration (US$60,400): Project implementation and oversight functions will be provided by the Applied Geo- Science and Technology Division (SOPAC) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). SPC-SOPAC has the regional mandate for capacity development of PICTs for DRR. This component will fund the acquisition of hardware to support the design and delivery of training, delivery of in-field assessments and monitoring and evaluation. Safeguard Policies that might apply Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No TBD Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01) x Natural Habitats (OP/BP 4.04) x Pest Management (OP 4.09) x Physical Cultural Resources (OP/BP 4.11) x Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12) x Indigenous Peoples ( OP/BP 4.10) x Forests (OP/BP 4.36) x Safety of Dams (OP/BP 4.37) x Projects in Disputed Areas (OP/BP 7.60)* x Projects on International Waterways (OP/BP 7.50) x Tentative financing Source: ($m.) Borrower/Recipient 0.339 IBRD IDA GFDRR 0.615 Total 0.954 Contact point World Bank Contact: Michael Bonte-Grapentin Title: Senior Climate and Disaster Risk Management Specialist Tel: +614 0570 4589 Email: mbonte@worldbank.org Borrower/Client/Recipient Contact: Mosese Sikivou Title: Deputy Director Disaster Reduction Programme, Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC) The Secretariat Of The Pacific Community Tel: +679 338 1377 Email: mosese@sopac.org Implementing Agencies Contact: Mosese Sikivou Title: Deputy Director Disaster Reduction Programme, * By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties' claims on the disputed areas Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC) The Secretariat Of The Pacific Community Tel: +679 338 1377 Email: mosese@sopac.org For more information contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-4500 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop