Publication:
Disaster Risk Management in Latin America and the Caribbean Region: GFDRR Country Notes

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (18.31 MB)
716 downloads
English Text (1.12 MB)
271 downloads
Date
2012
ISSN
Published
2012
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LCR) is exposed to a wide variety of natural hazards including earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, extreme temperatures, droughts, floods, landslides, etc., many of which are regularly aggravated by the recurrent El Nino and ENSO phenomenon. The global trend toward increasing climate variability is likely to exacerbate many of these hazards. The World Bank Natural Disaster Hotspots study (Dilley et al. 2005) indicates that seven among the world's top 15 countries exposed to three or more hazards are located in LCR.Similarly, 15 among the world's top 60 countries exposed to two or more hazards are LCR countries. The Latin American and Caribbean governments have long recognized the need to address disaster risk, and their efforts 'to develop the tools to effectively mainstream disaster risk management into development activities' (ibid., p. 1) have evolved over the last few decades. Since the mid-20th century, most of the countries in the region were working to address disasters through their respective civil protection agencies. Just like elsewhere in the world, efforts focused on ex-post response and recovery needs. While these efforts are undeniably important, they are increasingly proving to be insufficient. Over the last decade, governments, intergovernmental, non-governmental, and development organizations have gradually shifted the focus of their efforts towards ex-ante approaches to disaster risk management, with a special focus on disaster risk reduction via reducing vulnerability, capacity building, better information, and institutional strengthening.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2012. Disaster Risk Management in Latin America and the Caribbean Region: GFDRR Country Notes. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27336 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Natural Disaster Risk Management in the Philippines : Enhancing Poverty Alleviation Through Disaster Reduction
    (Washington, DC, 2005-10) World Bank
    The Philippines by virtue of its geographic circumstances is highly prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tropical cyclones and floods, making it one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. This report seeks to document the impacts of natural disasters on the social and economic development of the Philippines; assess the country's current capacity to reduce and manage disaster risk; and identify options for more effective management of that risk. The Philippine institutional arrangements and disaster management systems tend to rely on a response, or reactive approach, in contrast to a more effective proactive approach, in which disasters are avoided, by appropriate land-use planning, construction and other pre-event measures which avoid the creation of disaster-prone conditions. To evolve to a more proactive role, it is important that a national framework for comprehensive disaster risk management be prepared and implemented. The framework should incorporate the essential steps of integrated risk management, which include risk identification, risk reduction, and risk sharing/financing. The study identified some specific areas under these key themes that would need to be addressed to improve the current system, discussed through the study. The study also found that currently, the Government and individual households bear the majority of costs caused by natural disasters. More effective options for financing disaster risk, and relieving the burden of disasters from the public sector should be explored, including the idea of a catastrophe insurance pool, and/or contingent credit facilities. Also found was that, despite the high hazard risk in the Philippines, the insurance coverage for residential dwellings' catastrophes is almost non-existent. It is stipulated the Bank should examine the ongoing portfolio to identify how its projects can support the goal of disaster risk reduction. In addition, the Bank should consider more direct support to the development of an integrated disaster management risk approach, through the provision of technical assistance and lending.
  • Publication
    Advancing Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance in ASEAN Member States : Framework and Options for Implementation, Volume 2. Technical Appendices
    (Washington, DC, 2012-04) World Bank
    This report is part of a project being jointly conducted by the World Bank, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat, and United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). It aims to provide capacity building on disaster risk financing and insurance (DRFI) in ASEAN Member States. DRFI is a relatively new topic and, therefore, training and capacity building of local stakeholders is essential. Governments must understand the benefits and the limitations of disaster risk financing and insurance as part of their comprehensive Disaster Risk Management (DRM) strategies. This report presents main findings and recommendations on DRFI in the ASEAN region. Following the World Bank disaster risk financing and insurance framework, it consists of five chapters, including this introduction. Chapter two presents a preliminary economic and fiscal risk assessment of natural disasters in ASEAN Member States. Chapter three provides an overview of the fiscal management of natural disasters currently implemented by ASEAN Member States. Chapter four reviews the state of the private catastrophe insurance markets, including property catastrophe risk insurance, agricultural insurance, and disaster micro-insurance. Chapter five identifies five main recommendations for strengthening the long-term financial and fiscal resilience of ASEAN Member States against natural disasters, as part of their broader disaster risk management and climate change adaptation agendas.
  • Publication
    Climate Resilient Cities : A Primer on Reducing Vulnerabilities to Disasters
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009) Prasad, Neeraj; Ranghieri, Federica; Shah, Fatima; Trohanis, Zoe; Kessler, Earl; Sinha, Ravi
    Climate resilient cities a primer on reducing vulnerabilities to disasters is prepared as a guide for local governments in the East Asia Region to better understand the concepts and consequences of climate change; how climate change consequences contribute to urban vulnerabilities; and what is being done by city governments in East Asia and around the world to actively engage in learning, capacity building, and capital investment programs for building sustainable, resilient communities. The primer is applicable to a range of cities from those starting to build awareness on climate change to those with climate change strategies and institutions already in place. It is now undeniably evident that the global climate is changing as a result of human induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Increased levels of heat trapped in the atmosphere have set off a process that is modifying weather patterns, which in turn affect temperatures, sea levels, and storm frequencies. This will impact cities and other urban areas, especially those in coastal zones. Asia already experiences the greatest number of flood events worldwide. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Asia has experienced more than 550 floods affecting over 850 million people. Out of China's estimated urban population of 400 million, 130 million live in coastal cities that are vulnerable to sea-level rise. The high incidence of hydro-meteorological and other disasters affecting urban areas, particularly in vulnerable regions, is a challenge to local officials and their communities in being prepared and proactive in reducing their GHG emissions and in addressing increasingly frequent and extreme climate change events.
  • Publication
    Understanding Risk in an Evolving World : Emerging Best Practices in Natural Disaster Risk Assessment
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-10) Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery
    The 10-year-long Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) set out to substantially reduce impacts from natural disasters by 2015. Despite efforts toward this goal, economic losses from natural disasters are rising from US$50 billion each year in the 1980s, to just under $200 billion each year in the last decade (World Bank and GFDRR 2013). The economic losses sustained by lower- and middle-income countries alone over the last 30 years represent a full third of all total development assistance in the same time period, offsetting tremendous efforts by governments, multilateral organizations, and other actors. As the HFA period ends against a backdrop of challenging disaster risk trends, and consultations toward a post-2015 framework move forward, it is important to reflect on the role of disaster risk assessments in achieving disaster and climate resilience, and on the contributions risk assessments have made over the last 10 years. Understanding Risk in an Evolving World: Emerging Best Practices in Natural Disaster Risk Assessment, which was developed to inform post-HFA discussions and the 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR),1 reports on the current state of the practice of risk assessment and on advances made over the last decade.
  • Publication
    Indonesia
    (Washington, DC, 2011-10) World Bank
    This study presents options for a national disaster risk financing strategy in Indonesia, drawing heavily on international experience. The study discusses a series of complementary options for a national disaster risk financing strategy, based on a preliminary fiscal risk analysis and a review of the current budget management of natural disasters in Indonesia. It benefits from the international experience of the World Bank, which has assisted several countries in the design and implementation of sovereign catastrophe risk financing strategies. The rehabilitation and reconstruction fund is the main budget instrument for the Government of Indonesia (GoI) to finance public post-disaster expenditures, but it is under-capitalized. This study presents an optimal combination of risk-retention and risk transfer instruments that could help the GoI increase its immediate financial response capacity against natural disasters and better protect its fiscal balance. Building on the three-tier risk layering approach promoted by the World Bank and the preliminary fiscal risk assessment analysis, the following financial strategy could be considered by the GoI. This strategy would provide the GoI with access to immediate liquidity in the aftermath of a disaster at a competitive cost. The strategy would allow the GoI to access up to US$1.8 billion liquidity in the aftermath of a disaster in order to finance immediate post-disaster expenditures, such as grants for livelihood and low income housing reconstruction. Preliminary disaster fiscal risk assessment analysis shows that this would protect the GoI against disasters occurring every 100 years. The implementation of a national disaster risk financing strategy would require significant institutional capacity building.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Design Thinking for Social Innovation
    (2010-07) Brown, Tim; Wyatt, Jocelyn
    Designers have traditionally focused on enchancing the look and functionality of products.
  • Publication
    Governance Matters IV : Governance Indicators for 1996-2004
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06) Kaufmann, Daniel; Kraay, Aart; Mastruzzi, Massimo
    The authors present the latest update of their aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (1) voice and accountability; (2) political instability and violence; (3) government effectiveness; (4) regulatory quality; (5) rule of law, and (6) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. The authors present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. In fact, the authors give examples of how individual objective measures provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. The authors also analyze in detail changes over time in their estimates of governance; provide a framework for assessing the statistical significance of changes in governance; and suggest a simple rule of thumb for identifying statistically significant changes in country governance over time. The ability to identify significant changes in governance over time is much higher for aggregate indicators than for any individual indicator. While the authors find that the quality of governance in a number of countries has changed significantly (in both directions), they also provide evidence suggesting that there are no trends, for better or worse, in global averages of governance. Finally, they interpret the strong observed correlation between income and governance, and argue against recent efforts to apply a discount to governance performance in low-income countries.
  • Publication
    Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003) Collier, Paul; Elliott, V. L.; Hegre, Håvard; Hoeffler, Anke; Reynal-Querol, Marta; Sambanis, Nicholas
    Most wars are now civil wars. Even though international wars attract enormous global attention, they have become infrequent and brief. Civil wars usually attract less attention, but they have become increasingly common and typically go on for years. This report argues that civil war is now an important issue for development. War retards development, but conversely, development retards war. This double causation gives rise to virtuous and vicious circles. Where development succeeds, countries become progressively safer from violent conflict, making subsequent development easier. Where development fails, countries are at high risk of becoming caught in a conflict trap in which war wrecks the economy and increases the risk of further war. The global incidence of civil war is high because the international community has done little to avert it. Inertia is rooted in two beliefs: that we can safely 'let them fight it out among themselves' and that 'nothing can be done' because civil war is driven by ancestral ethnic and religious hatreds. The purpose of this report is to challenge these beliefs.
  • Publication
    Government Matters III : Governance Indicators for 1996-2002
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-08) Kaufmann, Daniel; Kraay, Aart; Mastruzzi, Massimo
    The authors present estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources constructed by 18 different organizations. The authors assign these individual measures of governance to categories capturing key dimensions of governance and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. They present the point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods. The governance indicators reported here are an update and expansion of previous research work on indicators initiated in 1998 (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Zoido-Lobat 1999a,b and 2002). The authors also address various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of errors.
  • Publication
    Governance Matters VIII : Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators 1996–2008
    (2009-06-01) Kaufmann, Daniel; Kraay, Aart; Mastruzzi, Massimo
    This paper reports on the 2009 update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2008: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. These aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from 35 data sources provided by 33 different organizations. The data reflect the views on governance of public sector, private sector and NGO experts, as well as thousands of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. The authors also explicitly report the margins of error accompanying each country estimate. These reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data. They find that even after taking margins of error into account, the WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress over time. The aggregate indicators, together with the disaggregated underlying indicators, are available at www.govindicators.org.