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17 October 2022
Natural hazards can trigger unnatural disasters —deaths and damages often resulting from human acts of omission and commission. The impact of climate change is only expected to exacerbate this, increasing the frequency and severity of certain climate-induced disasters like floods, drought, and wildfires across Central Asia. And that means the costs associated with such events will rise as well—especially where disaster preparedness is lacking. Disaster risk financing is one crucial component of... Keep reading
17 October 2022
It has been said that if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. This is especially true for managing disaster and climate risks in any country, but it is perhaps even more relevant in a country like Albania, which is exposed to floods, extreme weather, earthquakes, wildfires and landslides. Managing and reducing the risks associated with such events requires planning built on solid information, expertise, and resources to support activities to prepare for, mitigate, and respond to... Keep reading
04 October 2022
Pastoralists rely primarily on livestock for their livelihoods. This makes them more vulnerable to climate-related shocks, and therefore they have the highest poverty rates in Somalia. When drought hits, their animals either die or are sold at rock bottom prices. And yet Somalia’s livestock trade contributes to almost 80% of the country’s foreign currency earnings, with much of the livestock exported to countries in the Arabian Peninsula, such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab... Keep reading
25 July 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic was a major global health and economic shock that underscored, amongst other things, the importance of the water sector to public health and the need for institutional, business, and community resilience. When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, availability of clean water, handwashing with soap, and good hygiene practices were essential to arrest and prevent further spread of disease, alongside proper sanitation and wastewater treatment. As a result, water supply and... Keep reading
23 June 2022
“We must dare to invent the future”. The Government of Uganda (GoU) is embracing Thomas Sankara’s dictum. Even as Uganda remains at the center of Africa’s largest refugee crisis, hosting almost 1.6 million refugees and asylum seekers (the fifth largest number in the world), the GoU approaches the crisis as a development opportunity. Its Displacement Crisis Response Mechanism (DCRM) facilitates rapid scale-up of public services in poor and vulnerable host communities experiencing displacement... Keep reading
14 June 2022
The vulnerability burden of small states Small states are particularly exposed to the financial impacts of shocks , varying from natural disasters to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and man-made events such as the Ukraine war. The shocks disproportionally and recurrently affect small states due to their peculiarities. They have small populations and economic bases combined with geographically concentrated economies, which makes them particularly vulnerable to shocks. They tend to be... Keep reading
03 June 2022
In 2017, a World Bank team met with donor partners from Germany and the United Kingdom to discuss how to shape the future global disaster risk finance agenda. The Caribbean, and parts of Latin America and the USA had just been hit by a series of devastating hurricanes, costing thousands of lives, and leaving affected countries with the highest ever recorded damages. As natural disasters and climate shocks increasingly threatened lives, assets, and livelihoods — especially poor and vulnerable... Keep reading