On 24th and 25th December, 2013 a tropical trough system produced heavy rains in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). The ensuing rapid and intense flash flooding resulted in severe damage and 9 confirmed deaths with 3 persons still missing.
... See More + Additionally, there was widespread damage to road infrastructure, electricity and water infrastructure, housing as well as public and private buildings. This report serves as a reminder and proof of the Government (Go) SVG's resolve and commitment to risk reduction as well as the well-being of people. The GoSVG recognizes the necessity to better understand the climate and disaster risk context, and do best to reduce this risk and improve resilience across all sectors. On December 26, 2013, the GoSVG declared a national level two disaster in accordance with the National Emergency and Disaster Management Act, 2006. This report provides a rapid damage and loss assessment of the sectors affected - with a particular focus on infrastructure damage in order to inform the GoSVG's recovery, reconstruction, and financial planning. It also includes short and medium term recommendations designed to further incorporate disaster risk reduction and management into land use and physical planning decision-making processes so that the authors continue to develop into a country that is more resilient to natural disasters and climate change.
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Pakistan experienced severe flooding after torrential monsoon rains hit southern Sindh and the adjoining areas of Punjab and north-eastern Balochistan in August 2011.
... See More + Flash floods triggered by the monsoon rain caused severe damage to infrastructure in the affected areas. Entire villages and urban centers have been flooded, homes have been destroyed, and over a million acres of crops and agricultural lands have been damaged. A Damage and Needs Assessment (DNA) has been commissioned in the wake of the floods. The DNA assesses the extent of the damage and the needs for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the damaged assets and infrastructure, and restoration of livelihoods and economic productivity. It provides the strategic underpinnings for medium- to long-term post-floods reconstruction, recovery planning, prioritization, and programming. This report quantifies physical damage and presents sector level recovery and reconstruction strategies. Taking into account the extent of the damage and the proposed strategies, the report then quantifies corresponding needs.
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Disasters are increasing worldwide, with more devastating effects than ever before. While the absolute number of disasters around the world has almost doubled since the 1980s, the average number of natural disasters in Middle East and North Africa (MNA) has almost tripled over the same period of time.
... See More + In the MNA, the interplay of natural disasters, rapid urbanization, water scarcity, and climate change has emerged as a serious challenge for policy and planning. Projections by climatologists and United Nations specialists suggest that MNA economies and livelihoods will be the second most affected by climate change. Governments across the region have seen a progressive increase in demand for comprehensive disaster risk management (DRM) services. Since 2007, a range of country-level programs have been launched in Djibouti, Morocco, and the Republic of Yemen to increase their resilience to disasters due to Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). Decentralization of the DRM agenda has progressed slowly, although some countries are making a progressive shift. This report aims to take stock of progress in risk management in MNA, while identifying gaps for future interventions, to broaden the dialogue for a more proactive and collaborative management of risks. This report builds on the strategic vision, principles, and goals of the MNA region's countries; the Islamic Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (ISDRRM); the MNA strategic framework for climate action; and the World Bank's strategy update for MNA. This report aims to establish a more strategic and collaborative framework between the World Bank and its international partners, particularly United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and UN Development Program (UNDP), in order to assist MNA countries to shift from disaster response to proactive risk management.
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The objective of the Emergency 2007 Cyclone Recovery and Restoration Project for Bangladesh is to support the government's efforts to facilitate restoration and recovery from the damage to livelihoods and infrastructure caused by cyclone Sidr and to build long-term preparedness through strengthened disaster risk management.
... See More + This project paper pertains to the provision of additional credit to Bangladesh for the project. The additional financing (AF) is to scale up the construction and rehabilitation of critical infrastructure in the coastal areas. The AF will help support the costs associated with facilitating recovery from the damage and losses caused by prominent cyclones that hit the country in 2007 and 2009. The project's development objective and the implementation, coordination, and monitoring and evaluation arrangements are to remain unchanged, though the project outputs for the relevant components have been revised.
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This report presents the World Bank Group's experience in climate and disaster resilient development and contends that it is essential to eliminate extreme poverty and achieve shared prosperity by 2030.
... See More + The report argues for closer collaboration between the climate resilience and disaster risk management communities through the incorporation of climate and disaster resilience into broader development processes. Selected case studies are used to illustrate promising approaches, lessons learned, and remaining challenges all in contribution to the loss and damage discussions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The introduction provides an overview of the UNFCCC and also introduces key concepts and definitions relevant to climate and disaster resilient development. Section two describes the impacts of globally increasing weather-related disasters in recent decades. Section three summarizes how the World Bank Group's goals to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity are expected to be affected by rising disaster losses in a changing climate. Section four discusses the issue of attribution in weather-related disasters, and the additional start-up costs involved in climate and disaster resilient development. Section five builds upon the processes and instruments developed by the climate resilience and the disaster risk management communities of practice to provide some early lessons learned in this increasingly merging field. Section six highlights case studies and emerging good practices in climate and disaster resilient development. Section seven concludes the report, summarizing key lessons learned and identifying potential gaps and avenues for future work.
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Accounting and Auditing Assessment (ROSC) 82648 NOV 18, 2013
This report presents the World Bank Group's experience in climate and disaster resilient development and contends that it is essential to eliminate extreme poverty and achieve shared prosperity by 2030.
... See More + The report argues for closer collaboration between the climate resilience and disaster risk management communities through the incorporation of climate and disaster resilience into broader development processes. Selected case studies are used to illustrate promising approaches, lessons learned, and remaining challenges all in contribution to the loss and damage discussions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The introduction provides an overview of the UNFCCC and also introduces key concepts and definitions relevant to climate and disaster resilient development. Section two describes the impacts of globally increasing weather-related disasters in recent decades. Section three summarizes how the World Bank Group's goals to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity are expected to be affected by rising disaster losses in a changing climate. Section four discusses the issue of attribution in weather-related disasters, and the additional start-up costs involved in climate and disaster resilient development. Section five builds upon the processes and instruments developed by the climate resilience and the disaster risk management communities of practice to provide some early lessons learned in this increasingly merging field. Section six highlights case studies and emerging good practices in climate and disaster resilient development. Section seven concludes the report, summarizing key lessons learned and identifying potential gaps and avenues for future work.
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Accounting and Auditing Assessment (ROSC) 82648 NOV 18, 2013
This report presents the World Bank Group's experience in climate and disaster resilient development and contends that it is essential to eliminate extreme poverty and achieve shared prosperity by 2030.
... See More + The report argues for closer collaboration between the climate resilience and disaster risk management communities through the incorporation of climate and disaster resilience into broader development processes. Selected case studies are used to illustrate promising approaches, lessons learned, and remaining challenges all in contribution to the loss and damage discussions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The introduction provides an overview of the UNFCCC and also introduces key concepts and definitions relevant to climate and disaster resilient development. Section two describes the impacts of globally increasing weather-related disasters in recent decades. Section three summarizes how the World Bank Group's goals to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity are expected to be affected by rising disaster losses in a changing climate. Section four discusses the issue of attribution in weather-related disasters, and the additional start-up costs involved in climate and disaster resilient development. Section five builds upon the processes and instruments developed by the climate resilience and the disaster risk management communities of practice to provide some early lessons learned in this increasingly merging field. Section six highlights case studies and emerging good practices in climate and disaster resilient development. Section seven concludes the report, summarizing key lessons learned and identifying potential gaps and avenues for future work.
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Accounting and Auditing Assessment (ROSC) 82648 NOV 18, 2013
Costa Rica is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the World due to the tectonic interaction of the Cocos and Caribbean plates. Earthquakes, and other natural hazards, place major stress on the countrys population, infrastructure and economy, and often result in the disruption of basic services.
... See More + In response to this, the Government of Costa Rica is continuously working to build the capacity of technicians to design effective disaster risk management policies and investments to reduce seismic risk. Through the technical assistance projects (TAP), Costa Rican Water and Sanitation Institute (AyA) gained capacity to perform probabilistic seismic risk assessments for the water supply and sanitation (WSS) networks. The risk assessments provide AyAs technical team with critical information about the most vulnerable assets and areas that may concentrate higher economic losses, which will inform decisions about infrastructure investments and emergency preparedness. The Costa Rica TAP serves as a capacity-building model for the WSS sector that can be replicated in Costa Rica and other countries of the Latin America region, as well as for other natural hazards.
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The objective of the Uttarakhand Disaster Recovery Project for India is to restore housing, rural connectivity and build resilience of communities in Uttarakhand and increase the technical capacity of the state entities to respond promptly and effectively to an eligible crisis or emergency.
... See More + There are six components to the project, the first component being resilient infrastructure reconstruction. The objective of this component is to focus on the immediate needs of reconstruction of damaged houses and public buildings. The aim is to reduce the vulnerability of the affected population and restore access to the basic services of governance. The second component is the rural road connectivity. The objective of this component is to restore the connectivity lost due to the disaster through the reconstruction of damaged roads and bridges including: village roads, Other District Roads (ODRs), bridle roads and bridle bridges. The third component is the technical assistance and capacity building for disaster risk management. The objective of this component is to enhance the capabilities of government entities and others in risk mitigation and response. The fourth component is the financing disaster response expenses. This component will support the financing of eligible expenses already incurred by the state during the immediate post-disaster response period. The fifth component is the implementation support. This component will support the incremental operating costs of the project, including the operation of the Project Management Unit (PMU) and the respective Project Implementation Units (PIUs). Finally, the sixth component is the contingency emergency response.
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In recent years, the world has suffered a multitude of crises. Financial and economic turmoil have disrupted the world economy through loss of income, jobs, and social stability.
... See More + Intense natural disasters have devastated entire communities from Haiti to Japan, leaving a trail of fatalities and economic losses in their wake. Concerns about global warming have grown, as have fears about the spread of deadly contagious diseases. The inability to manage risk properly leads to crises and missed opportunities. This poses significant obstacles to attaining the World Bank Group's two main goals: ending extreme poverty by the year 2030 and boosting shared prosperity of the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries. Managing risk effectively is, therefore, absolutely central to the World Bank's mission. The World Development Report (WDR) 2014 demonstrates that effective risk management can be a powerful instrument for development, it can save lives, avert economic shocks, and help people build better, more secure futures. This report calls for individuals and institutions to move from being 'crisis fighters' to becoming 'proactive and systematic risk managers.' There is substantial evidence that recognizing and preparing for risk can pay off abundantly. For instance, many developing countries displayed resilience in the face of the recent global financial crisis because they had previously reformed their macroeconomic, financial, and social policies.
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This issue of the Global Index Insurance Facility newsletter includes the following topics of interest: Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery organizes fifth resilience dialogue; IFC Access to Finance manager Rachel Freeman enthusiastic about new disaster insurance projects; GIIF groundnut index insurance pilot in Senegal - interview with Pape Ndiaye, Executive Director, National Agriculture Insurance Company of Senegal; news from the GIIF team; and the merits of portfolio insurance and public-private partnerships.
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