Disasters and the associated economic shocks are a significant threat to human life and personal wellbeing. While the costs have always been significant, disasters are increasingly more expensive.  Between 2005-2014, the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region alone faced 314 disasters, resulting in more than 60,000 people killed, 11 million people affected and US$25 billion in damages.

A lack of resilience to disasters (which increasingly have massive consequential impacts well beyond the direct event) in both developed and developing economies is an increasing threat to economic growth and global security. Therefore, investors seeking to mitigate these risks need to prioritize funding for development that targets resilience and sustainability provided by better infrastructure.

These can be drivers of innovation, growth and job creation. Such measures are cost-effective and instrumental to save lives, prevent and reduce losses and ensure effective recovery and rehabilitation.

To address these financial challenges, UNDP is working to develop insurance solutions and resilience with over 200 development, financial and insurance industry organizations. We have facilitated support for vulnerable communities through partnerships and capacity for macro and micro-insurance products, first financing and executing feasibility assessments and later contributing to product rollout. Building on this work, UNDP is solidifying its strategy, making insurance core to its strategic agenda and an essential component for sustainable development and achieving the SDGs.

Objective

To understand better global trends of disaster financing market development and opportunities for the RBEC region, this conference set a multi-stakeholder platform for disaster financing knowledge sharing and coordinated actions for disaster financing development. The conference focused on questions in three key areas:

• What is the current state of global disaster financing that contributes to transform the promises of sustainable development into reality? What lessons have been learned that can be shared with the countries of ECIS (Western Balkans, Southern Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Central Asia)?
• How international development partners, the private sector and academia can help governments to capture the potential of the global disaster financing market for building resilient countries?
• What policy reforms are needed to accelerate development of national and regional disaster financing platforms and other DRR financing tools? Which political, economic, financial, and social constraints must be addressed?


Through technical assessments, partnership discussions, outreach, and advocacy, the DRR financing conference complemented, supported, and built on global actions for Sendai priority #3 implementation. Government and international agencies representatives benefitted from the perspectives, advice, and solutions offered by international financial institutions, private companies, think tanks, and academia.

About the Participants

The conference brought together governmental representatives from 18 ECIS states, which have a role to play in developing an enabling legal and policy environment and promoting DRR financing mechanisms; representatives of international community organizations and lead bilateral donors; and private sector practitioners developing and managing various disaster financing instruments.

Read the concept note and report
Read or watch the presentations