Blue economy breakthrough on parametric financing will support reef restoration and local economic recovery off Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.
ECA Studies pave the way to combating flooding in Honduras
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San Pedro Sula is a city in Northern Honduras. The area has always been prone to tropical storms and flooding; however in recent years the effects of climate change, land use change and deforestation have led to worsening problems. A growing population and increased intensity of storms have added further strain on the existing drainage systems and the city has suffered increasingly from floods.
“Climate change has significantly increased the risk of catastrophic floods,” explained Mayor Armando Calidonio. “These floods have grown in intensity and turned into much stronger events that reach neighborhoods and areas that weren’t exposed before. We’re seeing the concentration of rainfall into more aggressive storms that in general, even in the most developed areas, are causing the rainwater drainage systems to collapse.”
New initiative on disaster risk finance and inclusive insurance in Viet Nam
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Ha Noi, 28 April 2021 – The United Nations Development Programme organized an inception workshop for an upcoming diagnostic study on disaster risk finance and inclusive insurance. The workshop aimed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Vietnamese context and identify the possible interventions and technical support needed for the country, which has been selected as one of the first ten countries to participate in a new UNDP global initiative under its new Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (IRFF) to make inclusive insurance and risk financing central to development.
This new initiative has been designed jointly with the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) and is financially supported by the Government of Germany. UNDP will also work with the InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF) and global insurance industry partners to develop new disaster risk financing and insurance products to reduce the
Two Proposals for Ambitious 2021 Reforms
Coping with Compound Shocks
Developing countries and small economies are facing the prospect of more frequent and devastating compound shocks, defined as multiple disruptive events including natural disasters, economic and financial crises, and pandemics striking simultaneously or in rapid sequence. In 2020, Bangladesh, Fiji, Honduras, India, the Philippines, Mexico, Nicaragua, and 11 countries in the Sahel faced combinations of the COVID-19 pandemic; economic shocks associated with the pandemic and measures to contain it; and extreme weather events, including drought, floods, and/or hurricanes, that were exacerbated by climate change.
Compound shocks are more devastating than isolated shocks, for several reasons. First, they stretch health care delivery, social safety nets, and disaster response systems too thin, making effective relief and response difficult or impossible. Second, they can leave reserve funds and public budgets dangerousl