Finance is crucial for containing the spread of the new disease while not leaving countries to raid their national budgets and accumulate unsustainable debt burdens. But we don't need just more money; we need systems that ensure money is timely and reaches the frontline. In Episode 3 of the Centre for Disaster Protection's podcast, Counter Crisis, Cristina Stefan, the Centre’s Lead Risk Finance Advisor, is joined by Ruchir Agarwal, a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, to discuss why the race against the next pandemic has already started.

In Episode II of the Centre for Disaster Protection’s podcast, Counter Crisis, Shakira Mustapha, is joined by Michai Robertson to discuss the latest break-throughs in the global financing architecture dealing with the climate change.

In this inaugural episode of Counter Crisis, Ekhosuehi Iyahen and Lydia Poole discuss the complexities and challenges surrounding global disaster planning and financing. What needs to change to ensure the most vulnerable communities receive the protection they need?

Cristina Stefan, Lead Risk Finance Adviser, and Anna DeGrauw, Policy and Strategic Partnerships Officer, take a look at what the World Bank’s new Crisis Toolkit means for IDA countries, and what it could do to strengthen pre-arranged financing targets, crisis preparedness and partnerships.

In a new three-part podcast series, the Counter Crisis, experts discuss the state of pre-arranged financing for disasters, how we can prevent climate-related disasters from devastating the lives of the most vulnerable, and how to be ready for the next pandemic.

After the compounding crises of the past few years, political leaders and publics are understandably keen to put pandemics in the rearview mirror and focus on other issues. Yet the evidence is blinking red that delaying action to improve pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response will only increase the risk of catastrophic losses ―in lives and economies―given a very high likelihood of another COVID-severe pandemic in our lifetime. This blog captures key points from our discussion and lays out an agenda for action on pandemic financing in 2024 for world leaders

Conor’s role at the Centre for Disaster Protection involves enhancing transparency, traceability, and consistency in disaster risk financing (DRF) deals. He is also our expert in the application of risk transfer tools like catastrophe bonds within the development landscape. Read more about how the earth sciences and geophysics specialist came to apply his expertise in disaster risk finance.

The Centre recently published findings from a multi-year research exercise that set out to understand whether it is currently possible to quantify how much money should be pre-arranged to protect low income and vulnerable populations in response to future crises.

Planning and preparing for shocks pays. Pre-arranged financing (PAF) for disasters has the potential to significantly increase the predictability, speed and effectiveness of responses to shocks, reducing the human and financial costs. We know little, however, about how much pre-arranged financing is required to protect crisis-vulnerable people against risk and how far we are from achieving adequate coverage, targeted to the right places, for those people most at risk.

The launch of a new risk transfer instrument by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) marks an important milestone for risk transfer in humanitarian contexts. In this blog post our Lead Risk Advisers, Conor Meenan and Cristina Stefan, explain what makes the policy unique.

For the past two years, the Centre for Disaster Protection Advisory team has worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross to explore an innovative financing project supporting the ambition to scale the Disaster Response Emergency Fund using risk transfer and the private insurance market.

Anna Svensson, Policy and Strategic Partnerships Officer, has spent her career working in the not-for-profit sector and multisectoral collaborations. On this International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, she reflects on the Centre's evidence workstream and how tackling disaster inequality underpins our focus on impactful disaster risk finance.

Cristina Stefan is Lead Risk Finance Adviser at the Centre for Disaster Protection. Her journey into development and epidemic risk financing began nearly a decade ago. In this blog post, she highlights the need for pre-arranged financing, fit-for purpose instruments and the right incentives to facilitate timely and effective outbreak response, if the world is to be ready for the next pandemic.

In our latest insight, Anna DeGrauw explores the critical connection between disaster risk finance and disaster risk reduction within the UN frameworks, emphasising the pivotal role of the G20 in advancing this collaborative agenda given the significant challenges the member countries face. Pre-agreed language and the G20's convening power offer the potential for transformative change.

This blog navigates the complexities surrounding the intricate landscape of funding arrangements aimed at addressing climate-related losses and damages, shedding light on the Global Shield's role as an essential piece in this broader mosaic.

The Centre’s new guidance on accountability provides an accessible framework that applies core elements of accountability to the specificities of DRF instruments. Whether you are promoting, designing, delivering, evaluating or advocating for better DRF initiatives, this guidance is intended to support your work.

The Centre for Disaster Protection recently concluded learning exercises on the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) Anticipatory Action (AA) pilots in Nepal and Bangladesh, as part of our process learning support to OCHA. The focus was on moving to greater scale and sustainability for AA in each country. Four key challenges arise from the studies, which are relevant for any anticipatory action actors considering the difficult issue of how to move beyond pilots.

Contributions to help low-income countries pay for insurance premiums has become a ‘must have’ in the disaster risk finance toolbox. However, evidence is lacking on how to design premium subsidies that lead to sustainable protection. In our latest insight, we discuss country ownership, international responsibility and c a global ‘risk deal’ to upscale protection in climate-vulnerable countries.

“I thought my year-long secondment to the Centre for Disaster Protection would teach me a lot about the world of international development and disaster risk financing. However, it has also taught me a lot about myself.”

Timely finance can play a critical role in tackling epidemic outbreaks by outpacing the exponential rate at which infection can spread. Our new insight paper takes a closer look at disaster risk finance for pandemic and epidemic outbreaks.