World Bank lauds PH’s disaster risk financing

that disaster risk financing and insurance is a very important and timely topic given the new norm of growing intensity of disasters.”

“They recognized that there are a lot to learn in terms of disaster risk mitigation in order to lessen economic losses due to disasters,” she said in her report.

She told Dominguez that present at the meeting were representatives from the United States, Indonesia, Vietnam, Peru and New Zealand, who all expressed their support for, and participation in, the Working Group.

Besides the World Bank, officials of international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) were also at the meeting, she said.

“Japan, which was also present, likewise expressed support to the Philippines by agreeing to be the cochair of the Group,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez said the representatives from Thailand and Chile expressed their willingness to join the Philippines-led Working Group, with Chile raising the possibility of also inviting its Pacific Alliance co-members— Mexico and Colombia.

She said Indonesia has expressed the desire to integrate disaster risk financing into its financial policies, along with its interest in learning the experiences of member-economies in the Working Group.

The ABAC, meanwhile, offered its support to promote the role of the private sector in implementing disaster risk financing and insurance solutions, particularly on microinsurance, Alvarez said.

For its part, the OECD suggested that the Working Group tackle the “interrelationship of fiscal policies and disaster risk reduction and management,” Alvarez added.

The next meeting of the Working Group is tentatively scheduled in the first quarter of 2018 in Papua New Guinea, she said.