Solomon Islands is at high risk to natural hazards. Located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and within the cyclone belt, it is one of the 20 countries in the world most vulnerable to economic risk exposure caused by geological, hydrological and climatic hazards.
... See More + This includes tropical cyclones, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, floods and droughts. There have been seven major disasters triggered by natural hazards in the past 30 years, causing loss of life and having a severe and adverse impact on the economy each time. Modelling predicts natural hazards and climate change will lead to an average direct loss of US$20.5 million - or 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) - annually for the next 50 years. In April 2014, 23 people, predominantly women and children, lost their lives after a low depression caused flooding that swept through Honiara and the Guadalcanal Plains. Total damage and losses from the floods is estimated at US$108 million or 9.2 percent of GDP.
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Although there is fast-growing policy interest in offering financial products to help rural households manage risk, the literature is still scant as to which products are the most effective.
... See More + This paper uses a randomized field experiment in Senegal and Burkina Faso to compare male and female farmers who are offered index-based agricultural insurance with those who are offered a variety of savings instruments. The paper finds that female farm managers were less likely to purchase agricultural insurance and more likely to invest in savings for emergencies, even controlling for access to informal insurance and differences in crop choice. It is hypothesized that this finding results from the fact that, although men and women are equally exposed to yield risk, women face additional sources of lifecycle risk -- particularly health risks associated with fertility and childcare -- that men do not. In essence, the basis risk associated with agricultural insurance products is higher for women. Purchasing insurance increased input spending and use more than savings. Those who purchased more insurance realized higher average yields and were better able to manage food insecurity and shocks. This finding suggests that gender differences in demand for financial products can have an impact on productivity, resilience, and welfare.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7176 JAN 01, 2015
Delavallade, Clara; Dizon, Felipe; Hill, Ruth Vargas; Petraud, Jean Paul
Risk-aversion has generally been found to decrease in income. This may lead one to expect that poor countries will be more risk-averse than rich countries.
... See More + Recent comparative findings with students, however, suggest the opposite, giving rise to a risk-income paradox. This paper tests this paradox by measuring the risk preferences of more than 500 household heads spread over the highlands of Ethiopia and finds high degrees of risk tolerance. The paper also finds risk tolerance to increase in income proxies, thus completing the paradox. Using exogenous proxies, the paper concludes that part of the causality must run from income to risk tolerance. The findings suggest that risk preferences cannot be blamed for the failure to adopt new technologies. Alternative explanations are discussed.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7137 DEC 01, 2014
Vieider, Ferdinand M.; Beyene, Abebe; Bluffstone, Randall; Dissanayake, Sahan; Gebreegziabher, Zenebe; Martinsson, Peter; Mekonnen, Alemu
The development objective of the Urban Resilience Project for Bangladesh is to strengthen the capacity of Government of Bangladesh (GoB) agencies to efficiently and effectively respond to emergency events in Dhaka and Sylhet; and to improve the safety of new building construction in Dhaka.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) selecting land cautiously for acquisition; (2) checking if land available with the concerned agencies or other Government of Bangladesh (GOB) agencies can be utilized for the construction; and (3) carrying out field appraisal and consultation with likely affected and groups facilitated by competent partner non-government organization (NGO).
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The development objective of the Urban Resilience Project for Bangladesh is to strengthen the capacity of Government of Bangladesh (GoB) agencies to efficiently and effectively respond to emergency events in Dhaka and Sylhet; and to improve the safety of new building construction in Dhaka.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) avoiding agricultural land for subproject activities; (2) maintaining cross-drainage at all times during construction; (3) planting same species of trees and vegetation as compensatory measures; (4) planning the work schedule of noise creating activities in consultation of local community; (5) unloading of construction materials should be carried in a manner and time so as to avoid blockage of roads or paths or access; (6) prohibiting direct disposal of solid and liquid wastage into nearby water body; (7) arranging safe drinking water and sanitation facilities for the labors working in the subprojects; and (8) integrating drainage facilities with water supply options and sanitary latrine facilities in planning and design.
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The development objective of the Chongqing Small Towns Water Environment Management Project for China is to reduce flood risks and improve wastewater infrastructure services in selected counties of Chongqing municipality.
... See More + The project comprises of five components. The first component, flood management in Tongnan County will carry out non-structural measures at the county level, including: (a) strengthening flood early warning and emergency response capacity through provision of water level monitoring and warning facilities; (b) upgrading flood risk mapping and dissemination, safety zoning, raising public awareness, and emergency response planning; and (c) improving land use management planning for flood affected areas. The second component, flood and wastewater management in Rongchang County will carry out non-structural measures at the county level, including: (a) improving hydromet monitoring and information management systems through the establishment of a local computer network with the required hardware and software, geographic information system (GIS) database and basic supporting facilities for data storage, processing, and communication; (b) strengthening the flood early warning and emergency response capacity through development of flood emergency response plans, capacity-building, and basic facilities at county, township, and village levels; and (c) upgrading flood risk mapping and dissemination, safety zoning, and raising public awareness. The third component, flood and wastewater management in Shizhu County will carry out non-structural measures at the county level, including: (a) improving hydromet monitoring and information management systems through the establishment of telemetry gauging stations; (b) strengthening the flood early warning and emergency response capacity through development of flood emergency response plans, capacity-building, and basic facilities at the county, township, and village levels; (c) upgrading flood risk mapping and dissemination, safety zoning, and raising public awareness; and (d) developing a geographic information system for monitoring, operation, and maintenance of drainage and wastewater network facilities. The fourth component, flood and wastewater management in Pengshui County will: (a) improve hydromet monitoring and information management systems through the establishment of telemetry gauges and rainfall stations; (b) strengthen the flood forecasting and early warning capacity at the county level through the establishment and operationalization of a flood forecasting system with the required database, data processing, communication and flood forecasting software, and hardware and facilities at the management center; and (c) upgrade flood risk mapping and dissemination, safety zoning, raising public awareness, and emergency response planning. The fifth component, project management and implementation support will fund the incremental operation costs for the Chongqing project management office (CPMO).
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The objective of the Multipurpose Disaster Shelter Project (MDSP) for Bangladesh is to reduce the vulnerability of the coastal population in selected coastal districts of Bangladesh to natural disasters.
... See More + The project has three components. (1) Reconstruction and improvement of multipurpose shelters component will finance the construction of around 552 new shelters, the rehabilitation of around 450 existing shelters, the construction and improvement of around 550 kilometers of rural roads to improve access and communication networks to shelters, the implementation of environmental and social management plans, and design and construction supervision. (2) Project management, monitoring and technical assistance and training component will support the government in implementing the project, and in coordinating all project related activities, monitoring, technical assistance and training. (3) Emergency contingent response component. In case of a major natural disaster, the government may request the Bank to re-allocate project funds to this component (which presently carries a zero allocation) to support response and reconstruction.
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This issue focuses on communities in Colombia at high-risk to natural disasters. Policymakers continue long-term efforts to understand the scope of the problem and target measures to reduce the vulnerability of people living at risk to flooding and landslides.
... See More + Two significant observations surfaced from an initial research of various Colombian municipalities, and examining different methodologies and employed to quantify the number of households living in high-risk areas: 1) there was no consistent or systematic methodology to collect information needed to assess risk at the community level, nor to generate local hazards assessments for floods and landslides; and 2) there was no centralized data-sharing platform existed for national ministries and agencies to easily and cost-effectively access household information obtained at the municipal level. After deliberation and analysis by stakeholders and partners, a new standardized methodology was developed. The following elements emerged that supported the roll-out of the National Inventory of High-Risk Settlements to streamline decision-making processes: 1) a set of criteria was defined for all municipalities to extract inventory data from previous technical studies and emergency reports; 2) the methodology to build the national inventory was developed in consideration of limited technical capacity in many municipalities; 3) a centralized information platform for the national settlement inventory was established based on the methodology to permit municipal agencies to collect and share data more easily; and 4) the Ministry of Housing, City, and Territory issued a Ministerial Resolution that legally requires municipalities to adhere to the methodology to develop the National Inventory of High-Risk Settlements. While being no small task, building the National Inventory of High-Risk Settlements will have a significant impact on Colombias ability to address urbanization trends by reducing risk.
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This restructuring paper seeks the approval of the Executive Directors to trigger two additional safeguard policies, Operations Policy 4.04 Natural Habitats and Operational Policy 4.12 Involuntary Resettlement.
... See More + Operational Policy 4.04 and 4.12 are being triggered in a precautionary mode. The restructured loan is expected to have positive indirect environmental impacts, given the focus on capacity building of key institutions of the Government of Rio de Jeniero GORJ, including the State Institute for the Environment. The acquisition and installation of two meteorological radar systems involve construction activities with limited adverse environmental impacts. For this reason, the project Environmental Assessment has been re-categorized from "C" to "B". The Level 2 restructuring is introducing two new components to better organize the activities and objectives added in the first restructuring. The new components are (i) Component 4, titled Development of Institutional and Technological Capacity for Preventing and Performing during High-intensity Weather Events and (ii) Component 5, titled Project Management. Component 4 would support the strengthening of the States early warning system for high rainfall events. Component 5 would support activities related to the overall management of the project. Components 4 and 5 will receive funding from the reallocation of funds from the elimination of subcomponents from Components 2 and 3. See Less -
Ratings for the Irrigation and Drainage Rehabilitation Project for Serbia were as follows: outcomes were moderately satisfactory, the risk to development outcome was substantial, the Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and the Borrower performance was also moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: the formulation or amendment of laws is a political process where the Bank can only have a limited influence and will essentially be governed by local politics. This is true even when the government recognizes the need for legal amendments, but reforms might be opposed by a number of interest groups that rely on the status quo to maintain their position. A project implementation unit (PIU) with substantial decision making power helps project implementation when the responsible Ministry is challenged due to frequent changes at the top. Countries that have reasonably functional land use and cadaster maps as well as building regulations and permit requirement need significant amounts of time and coordination efforts to get permits and documentation approved and verified by the competent authorities before works can commence. The flexibility in approach to accommodate parallel financing on site selection and responding to farmers needs based on current activities with electrification rather than strictly pushing the project design helps in achieving concrete on the ground results.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3127 OCT 22, 2014
Ratings for the Flood Emergency Cash Transfer Project for Pakistan were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, risk to development outcome was moderate, Bank performance was satisfactory, and Borrower performance was moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: in an emergency program, targeting methods should be as simple and well understood and based on disaster impact rather than wealth. This places heavier reliance on grievance redress mechanisms, which become an important feature; this is not necessarily so in a normal project where more time can be spent on design than is appropriate in an emergency operation. While a post-disaster cash transfer program needs to be prepared more quickly after a disaster, applying a two-phase response may be effective - a first phase that is purely disaster targeted and provides immediate relief, focusing on keeping people alive and safe, and ensuring that immediate needs are met; and a second phase focused on recovery, not only protecting basic consumption but also recapitalizing assets and restoring livelihoods. If national identification cards are to be used as an element to verify beneficiaries, they need to have broad coverage and be up-to-date. Public awareness and well-prepared communications are essential to ensure smooth processes. The use of debit cards and automated teller machine (ATM) machines is likely to reduce the risk of storing large amounts at home. The impact evaluation was accurate in capturing the impact of the two transfers under second phase of citizen's damage compensation program (CDCP II) on beneficiary households.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3119 OCT 17, 2014
This is a statement by Joe Oliver at the ninetieth meeting of the Development Committee held on October 11, 2014. He discusses On behalf of Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean countries that comprise our constituency, I would like to express our appreciation and support for the leadership of the World Bank Group over the past year, particularly as it has responded to a number of urgent crises.
... See More + The world is facing an increasingly complex array of social, economic and political challenges. The global economic recovery continues to underperform, growth in major emerging economies is slowing and unemployment remains unacceptably high. Global policy makers must take actions to boost job creation, ensure sustainable public finances, and make their economies stronger and more resilient. In order to meet its twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity, the World Bank Group has an important role to play in these efforts by helping developing member countries to achieve stronger, more sustainable and more inclusive growth.
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This is a statement by Tatsuo Yamasaki at the ninetieth meeting of the Development Committee held on October 11, 2014. He expresses sympathy to the people suffering from Ebola and offers our condolences to the families that have lost loved ones.
... See More + He highly appreciates the strong leadership that the World Bank has displayed in the provision of concerted support by international organizations and governments to the West African Countries where the Ebola epidemic is spreading. Humanitarian aid to tackle this crisis needs to be provided. As President Kim proposed, it is essential to ease the peoples fear and to contain economic damage as soon as possible by promptly taking adequate actions. Japan has announced financial assistance worth more than 45 million dollars and will continue to contribute to containing the Ebola epidemic.
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