Glossary

Catastrophe bond

A catastrophe bond (cat bond) is a risk-transfer financial instrument that allows governments or insurers to transfer disaster risk to capital market investors. If a specified disaster event occurs, the bond’s principal is used to provide funds for recovery; if no event occurs, investors receive interest payments and their principal back.

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This working paper presents a framework that compares contingent loans, grants from multilateral development banks, catastrophe bonds, and insurance provided through regional risk pools.

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other key terms

Financial Flows

Financial flows refer to the movement of funds for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and response, covering planned and unplanned sources.

International premium support

Premium support is international funding to pay for insurance premiums.

Resilience

The ability to withstand shocks, adapt, recover and continue functioning over time.

Risk profile

Underlying risks that an organisation or country is exposed to and the extent to which they are mitigated by pre-arranged finance.

Disaster risk financing

Financial arrangements made in advance to pay for disaster prevention, response and recovery.

Crisis financing

Funding designed to prevent, prepare for and respond to crises before and after they occur.