The development objective of the Emergency Natural Disaster Reconstruction Project for Vietnam is to reconstruct and rehabilitate infrastructure assets in disaster-affectedproject provinces (85 percent) and strengthen the capacity of the Government to effectivelyrespond to future disaster events (15 percent).
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures are includes : (i) requirements of land acquisition for construction works, which is inevitable, and or temporary disruptions of local people livelihood during construction time; (ii) During theconstruction time, there will be temporary impacts on people's agricultural productionas well as the potential impacts on the natural fishing of people in La tinh river area(Binh Dinh sub-project), bamboo harvesting (Ninh Thuan sub-project); (iii) rehabilitation of roadand/or road sections might limit or prevent local people from transpotation, which require through traffic to take different routes or reducing the number of lanes that can be used; (iv) involveroad rehabilitation, and or upgrading irrigation and flood control, households who living along or nearby proposed project road or do agricultural production at the project targeted areas may be potentially affected during the construction operation; (v) the contractor should work closely with local government to ensure the construction of the camps for workers and take into account factors that prevent / reduce the risk of negative impact on the daily lives and activities of ethnic minority people.
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The development objective of South East Asia Disaster Risk Management Project for Lao People's Democratic Republic is to help reduce the risk of flooding and enhance disaster risk financing capacity within the Southeast Asia region.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: ( i) in case of productive land, for marginal loss of 10 percent of land, cash compensation at replacement cost which is equivalent to the current market value of land within the village, of similar type, category and productive capacity, free from transaction costs (taxes, administration fees), or Replacement land of similar type, category and productive capacity of land within or nearby the village, with land title; (ii ) with remaining land sufficient to rebuild houses or structures: (a) cash compensation at replacement cost which is equivalent to the current market value of land of similar type and category, and free from transaction costs (taxes, administration fees) and (b) district government to improve remaining residential land at no cost to Project Affected People/ Project Affected Households (PAP/PAH) (e.g., filling and leveling) so PAP/PAH can move back onto a plot; (iii) in case of Fishpond owner, if the currently held fish stocks will not be harvested before the project takes possession of the fishpond, then cash compensation for the projected mature value of fish stock held at the time of compensation; (iv) if standing annual crops are ripening and cannot be harvested, cash compensation at replacement cost equivalent to the highest production of crop over the last three years multiplied by the current market value of crops for the owners of crops and trees whether or not land is owned; (v) compensation at replacement cost for present or existing structures based on its present value to villagers or village households; (vi) cash compensation for Electricity Companies for the cost to dismantle, transfer and rebuild; (vii) for businesses (shops) cash compensation equivalent to the daily wage rate multiplied by the number of days of business disruption; and (viii) relocating PAP/PAH without any impact on business or source of incomes will be provided with cash or in-kind assistance equivalent to 16 kilograms of rice at current market value for three months per household member.
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Ratings for the Seismic Risk Mitigation Project for Turkey were as follows: outcomes were highly satisfactory, the risk to development outcome was low or negligible, the Bank performance was satisfactory, and the Borrower performance was highly satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: risk reduction investments, whose outcomes (minimization of losses and fatalities) will become visible only in the event of a major disaster, require a long-term policy dialogue with public authorities facing competing demands on resources. Inclusion of functional upgrades (to modern service provision standards) makes disaster risk reduction investments for public facilities and assets more effective and sustainable. Early involvement of project beneficiaries and multiple stakeholders in the planning and execution of the retrofitting/reconstruction was crucial to successful project implementation. Integrating well-designed public awareness and disaster preparedness programs with physical investments builds buy-in for risk reduction, the benefits of which may only be demonstrated in the event of a disaster. For contract-intensive lending operations with long implementation periods, financial risk management measures are crucial to deliver project outcomes. Financial risk management was based on scenario-based cash-flows and disbursement projections that accounted for factors such as fluctuations in exchange rate and delays in execution of contracts. This type of modeling allowed for an efficient use of project funds and timely implementation of a large and complex program of geographically dispersed physical works.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3698 JUN 25, 2016
Climate change has considerably increased the likelihood of experiencing extreme weather events. Governments in developing countries have a limited capacity to smooth the losses created by extreme weather, and could potentially benefit from the introduction of disaster funds, that is, ex-ante budgeting allocations for post-disaster reconstruction.
... See More + So far the implementation of disaster funds has been limited, in part because it is still unclear whether disaster funds provide a cost-effective way of coping with these losses. By taking advantage of the sharp rules that govern the municipal-level eligibility for reconstruction funds in Mexico, this paper provides some of the first estimates of the impact of disaster funds on local economic activity. The main finding is that access to disaster funding boosts local economic activity between 2 and 4 percent in the year following the disaster. Another finding is that the positive impact of disaster funds on local economic recovery can persist for as long as a year and a half after the disaster. Consistent with these findings, we additionally show that access to disaster funding leads to a large and sustained 76 percent increase in the growth of local construction employment. This labor market impact slightly precedes the overall increase in local economic activity.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7714 JUN 21, 2016
De Janvry,Alain F.; del Valle,Alejandro; Sadoulet,Elisabeth Marie L.Disclosed
Those at risk from natural disasters are typically under-protected, possibly because they expect benefactors such as governments and donors to come to their aid.
... See More + Yet when relief comes, it is often insufficient, delayed or misallocated. Benefactors may wish to commit to provide an efficient amount of fast well-targeted relief, and leave the rest up to recipients, but such commitments are difficult. This article analyses how transferring risk to third-parties such as private insurers may help resolve these commitment problems. Using a simple model of disaster risk finance is used to identify three distinct commitment problems and then show how various properties of risk transfer schemes can help to resolve these problems. The paper illustrates how these commitment problems play out using examples from around the world, and demonstrates where risk transfer schemes seem to have helped in practice. Overall, the findings show that the benefits of such schemes depend on the relative severity of the different commitment problems.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7720 JUN 21, 2016
In the past decades, natural disasters have caused substantial human and economic losses in Central America, with strong adverse impacts on gross domestic product per capita, income, and poverty reduction.
... See More + This study provides a regional perspective on the impact of hurricane windstorms on socioeconomic measures in the short term. Apart from modeling the socioeconomic impact at the macro and micro levels, the study incorporates and juxtaposes data from a hurricane windstorm model categorizing three hurricane damage indexes, which lends a higher level of detail, nuance, and therefore accuracy and comprehensiveness to the study. One standard deviation in the intensity of a hurricane windstorm leads to a decrease in growth of total per capita gross domestic product of between 0.9 and 1.6 percent, and a decrease in total income and labor income by 3 percent, which in turn increases moderate and extreme poverty by 1.5 percentage points. These results demonstrate the causal relationship between hurricane windstorm impacts and poverty in Central America, producing regional evidence that could improve targeting of disaster risk management policies toward those most impacted and thus whose needs are greatest.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7692 JUN 01, 2016
Ishizawa Escudero,Oscar Anil; Miranda Montero,Juan JoseDisclosed
The development objective for the Sindh Resilience Project for Pakistan is to mitigate flood and drought risks in selected areas and to strengthen Sindh's capacity to manage natural disasters.
... See More + It has comprises three components. The first component, strengthening disaster and climate risk management will primarily focus on key disaster management institutions in terms of strengthening operational systems and capacities at the provincial and district levels. In addition, the component will support other departments at the Government of Sindh – through the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Sindh to develop greater fiscal resilience through strengthening financial capacity and risk financing mechanisms, and mainstream disaster risk reduction in development planning and budgeting processes. It has four sub- components. (i) improving risk identification and Using risk information for development decision-making, (ii) strengthening disaster risk management agencies, (iii) enhancing fiscal resilience, and (iv) project implementation support to PDMA Sindh. The second component, improving infrastructure and systems for resilience will primarily support restoration and improvement of embankments at high risk sites along the Indus for protection against riverine floods as well as construction of small rainwater-fed recharge dams in drought prone regions in Sindh. In addition the component will assist the Sindh irrigation department towards implementing project interventions and increasing operational efficiency. It has four sub-components. (i) flood protection works, (ii) construction of small recharge dams to address drought and flash flooding risks, (iii) technical assistance to Sindh irrigation department and (iv) project implementation support to Sindh irrigation department. The third component, contingent emergency response will allow the government to request to reallocate financing from other project components to partially covers emergency response and recovery costs. This component can also be used to channel additional funds should they become available for such an emergency.
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This paper presents a model to assess the socioeconomic resilience to natural disasters of an economy, defined as its capacity to mitigate the impact of disaster-related asset losses on welfare, and a tool to help decision makers identify the most promising policy options to reduce welfare losses due to floods.
... See More + Calibrated with household surveys, the model suggests that welfare losses from the July 2005 floods in Mumbai were almost double the asset losses, because losses were concentrated on poor and vulnerable populations. Applied to river floods in 90 countries, the model provides estimates of country-level socioeconomic resilience. Because floods disproportionally affect poor people, each $1 of global flood asset loss is equivalent to a $1.6 reduction in the affected country's national income, on average. The model also assesses and ranks policy levers to reduce flood losses in each country. It shows that considering asset losses is insufficient to assess disaster risk management policies. The same reduction in asset losses results in different welfare gains depending on who benefits. And some policies, such as adaptive social protection, do not reduce asset losses, but still reduce welfare losses. Asset and welfare losses can even move in opposite directions: increasing by one percentage point the share of income of the bottom 20 percent in the 90 countries would increase asset losses by 0.6 percent, since more wealth would be at risk. But it would also reduce the impact of income losses on wellbeing, and ultimately reduce welfare losses by 3.4 percent.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7663 MAY 09, 2016
Since 2013 The World Bank Group has partnered with the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery and the U.K. Department for International Development to address some of these gaps in evidence and methodologies.
... See More + The Disaster Risk Finance Impact Analytics Project has made significant contributions to the understanding of how to monitor and evaluate existing or potential investments in disaster risk finance from a development perspective, and to the evidence base for where such investments have development impact.This note summarizes the findings of this project, presenting the key messages of a book, a technical report, and 14 research papers, categorized into four themes.
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This is a statement by Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program and Chair of the United Nations Development Group at the 93rd meeting of the Development Committee held on April 16, 2016.
... See More + The 70th anniversary year of the United Nations in 2015 was a watershed year for development. United Nations Member States reached four major agreements: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030; the Addis Ababa Action Agenda at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development; and the new global climate change agreement at COP21 in Paris. The challenges of fragility and conflict are becoming increasingly complex and often spill over to neighboring countries and beyond. Around 1.4 billion people now live in fragile contexts and that number is projected to grow to 1.9 billion by 2030. Fragile environments can become fertile breeding grounds for the trafficking of people, weapons, and drugs, and/or violent extremism.
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This is a statement by Mr. Masatsugu Asakawa, Vice Minister of Finance, International Affairs at the ninety-third meeting of the Development Committee held on April 16, 2016.
... See More + He states that the forced displacement is one of the biggest challenges the world faces today. By the end of 2015, about 20 million refugees existed worldwide, and most of them were forcibly displaced from their home countries to the neighboring countries. Forced displacement should be addressed not only from the aspect of short-term ex-post response but also from that of preparedness and prevention. Japan supports the approach of the World Bank Group (WBG) to explore a comprehensive solution to the refugee issues including income inequality and unemployment, by strengthening assistance to mitigate vulnerabilities based on each country partnership framework (CPF). Japan appreciates the WBG for leading the effort in developing the new financing initiative to support the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to provide support for the host countries of refugees such as Lebanon and Jordan. Furthermore, as a joint assistance with the WBG, Japan will make 30 million United States (U.S.) dollars contribution to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) MENA fund, LP, in order to support job creation in the MENA region through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in cooperation with the Gulf countries.
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This is a statement by H.E. Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah, Second Minister of Finance at the ninety-third meeting of the Development Committee held on April 16, 2016.
... See More + On behalf of the Southeast Asia Group constituency, we would like to thank the World Bank Group’s (WBG) leadership for their strategic role as well as timely and decisive response to global development needs, including the on-going refugee crisis. He also appreciate the WBG’s efforts in optimizing and enhancing its resources as well as operational capabilities to deliver on the ambitious goals set forth in the 2030 Development Agenda. The root cause of forced displacement is for the UN to address. The solution could be only through concerted diplomatic and peacekeeping interventions. The MDBs could efficiently mobilize their financial assistance towards promoting global public goods, investment and reconstruction of infrastructure as well as human capital development in the forced displacement areas. As a way to ensure close coordination and clear distribution of roles and responsibilities, the Southeast Asia Constituency Group will like to encourage the WBG to contribute actively during the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016.
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This paper addresses the question whether and how co-benefits, through disaster resilience building, can be further promoted. Co-benefits are defined as positive externalities that arise deliberately as a result of a joint strategy that pursues several objectives synergistically at the same time, such as disaster risk management and development goals, or disaster risk management and climate change adaptation.
... See More + Of particular interest is the question of how the economic and broader benefits of disaster risk management can be recognized and realized by those in charge of fiscal policy decisions. The paper considers the interplay between public disaster risk management investment and fiscal policy, and provides an overview of the current debate as well as assessment methods, tools, and policy options. In fiscal budgeting, it has been standard practice to focus on direct liabilities and recurrent spending. Costs of disasters are often dealt with after the fact only, rather than being considered as contingent liabilities. As a consequence, the full costs of disasters have often not been budgeted for, and, with a price signal missing, there is lack of clear incentives for investing in disaster risk management. Overall, the paper identifies four steps and three dividends to be harnessed: (i) understanding fiscal risk; (ii) protecting public finance through risk financing instruments, the first dividend; (iii) managing disaster risk comprehensively, the second dividend; and (iv) pursuing a synergistic, co-benefits strategy of concurrently managing disaster risks and promoting development, the third dividend.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7635 APR 12, 2016
Global economic losses from natural disasters continue to increase. Yet, investments in disaster risk management are not universal, as they are traditionally seen as in competition with other development and economic priorities.
... See More + The multitude of benefits from disaster risk management investments are not traditionally accounted for in cost-benefit analyses. This paper contributes to this discussion by highlighting the multiple benefits from disaster risk management investments, focusing on the avoided losses when a disaster occurs, but also on the impacts on economic development even before a disaster strikes. The paper's main message is that disaster risk management investments can provide two dividends: reduced losses when a disaster strikes, and a shift of investment strategies and perhaps even an increase in investment value that would benefit the economy even before a disaster strikes. Providing evidence to policy makers and investors about the existence of both types of dividends can provide a narrative reconciling short-term and long-term objectives, thereby improving the acceptability and feasibility of disaster risk management investments.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7632 APR 12, 2016
This disaster risk financing country note for Serbia provides an overview of the way its government currently finances the costs imposed by natural disasters.
... See More + Meanwhile, poverty deepened after the financial crisis and during the recessions of 2012 and 2014, mainly because of losses in employment and labor income. In an effort to overcome its fiscal challenges, the government of Serbia adopted an ambitious fiscal consolidation and structural reform program to halt the rise in public debt and send it on a downward trajectory by 2017. This program is supported by a three-year stand-by arrangement from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Because of the growing frequency and severity of disasters, the government has faced the rising costs of responding to disasters as well as the challenges of financing emergency response and reconstruction costs. Having sufficient access to financial instruments and resources in order to respond to disasters is crucial for building the financial resilience of the country and minimizing the negative impact of natural disasters on Serbia’s economic growth. In this report, chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides the background and country context, including the recent economic impacts of disasters. Chapter three reviews the current institutional and legal framework for disaster risk management and financing. Chapter four is a review of the public financial management of disasters in Serbia, including ex ante and ex post disaster risk financing and insurance (DRFI) instruments currently in use for budget mobilization, and it looks at the 2014 floods in more detail. The chapter concludes with a summary of financial resources available and a look at the potential resource gaps.
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Social safety nets and the broader social protection are widely recognized as one of the instruments to build resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations, and ultimately to reduce poverty.
... See More + Social safety nets programs increase resilience in the short term by improving the capacity of vulnerable households to cope with idiosyncratic and covariate shocks such as natural disasters, man-made crisis and economic shocks1 by providing cash, food, insurance, and other means to smooth income. Social safety nets have also the potential to play a significant role in minimizing the impacts of natural disaster and man-made conflicts once they occur if programs are scaled up or introduced rapidly. When combined with complementary interventions, social safety nets increase resilience in the long term by promoting human capital development and income generating activities. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a clear framework on the role of social protection to help achieve the long-term goal of sustainable development.
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