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In December 2024, Cyclone Chido hit Comoros and destroyed homes and crops on the islands of Anjouan and Mohéli, leaving many without food and shelter and endangering livelihoods. However, earlier that year, Comoros had joined the Regional Emergency Preparedness and Access to Inclusive Recovery Program (REPAIR), approved by the Board of Directors of the World Bank with a US$926 million maximum financing, supported by a US$26 million grant from the Global Shield Financing Facility. Through REPAIR...
Pre-disaster Financial Planning Pays Off Southeast Asia is among the world’s most disaster-prone regions. Over 2025 alone, floods, typhoons, and landslides have disrupted lives, jobs, and economic activities across Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Viet Nam. As climate change intensifies, countries need not only stronger response systems but also faster and more predictable funding to protect vulnerable populations and safeguard development gains. Between 2015 and 2020...
From February 23 to 28, 2025, a delegation of 13 representatives from financial sector authorities from Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia, along with representatives from the DRIVE implementing partner ZEP-RE, participated in a targeted knowledge exchange visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Organized by the FCI Crisis and Disaster Risk Finance and East Africa teams, the study tour deepened understanding of Islamic finance, particularly Takaful and Islamic capital markets, as part of a broader effort to...
Photo Credit: Alain Nikingi, Pexels | Floods in Kalehe, South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. At the time when the Government of South Africa approached the World Bank’s Disaster Risk Financing (DRF) Program about looking beyond natural disasters to social risks such as social violence, which costs South Africa $45.6 billion (13% of GDP) annually, we had already begun exploring this challenge. We were grappling with the complex, dynamic way in which social risks interact with public health...
Photo: Doruk Aksel Anıl from Pexels Türkiye is a land of deep history and economic dynamism, but it also sits at the crossroads of natural hazards. Earthquakes strike frequently and with force, and climate-related risks are intensifying as weather patterns shift. The question is no longer whether the next disaster will occur, but how prepared the country is to protect lives, livelihoods, and public finances when it does. The unseen costs—and the funding gap we must close Disasters don’t end when...
When we first began working with Somalia on its Disaster Risk Financing (DRF) agenda, we knew we were stepping into one of the world’s most complex environments. Somalia is not only fragile and conflict-affected, but also highly disaster-prone. Droughts, floods, and cyclones are regular occurrences, and each event brings devastating consequences for people’s lives and livelihoods. All these shocks exert fiscal pressure on the government is immense—immediate disaster response costs alone are...
This "In the Spotlight" interview talks about the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP); a pool that has set an example for many other countries across the world. Over the past 25 years, the TCIP has grown to cover more than half of the households across the country. After the devastating February 2023 earthquake, its rapid payouts supported many families and their immediate recovery needs. The TCIP is a unique partnership between the public and the private sector. The government is critical...