GLOBAL POLICY ENGAGEMENT

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

Typically, help in response to a humanitarian crisis comes after the fact and is requested through formal appeals. This type of response can be delayed, influenced by political factors, and often inadequate. UNOCHA and partners piloted a large-scale collective anticipatory humanitarian response to flooding in Bangladesh in 2020. In this insight, Lydia Poole, Associate Director for Evidence, shares her thoughts on what the evaluation of the intervention could mean for a system-level shift towards anticipatory response.

Our new Insight Paper examines an innovation in sovereign debt contracts that may be groundbreaking in its potential impact on public finances and lives of citizens in disaster- and climate vulnerable countries – a debt pause clause.

In August 2022, extreme monsoon rains exacerbated by glacial melt runoff, resulted in catastrophic floods in Pakistan. The damage was on an unprecedented scale, with flood waters inundating tens of thousands of square kilometres. Pakistan sought substantial support from the international community for assistance with the immediate humanitarian response, as well as recovery and reconstruction efforts estimated in the billions of dollars.