Glossary

Covariate shocks

Covariate shocks are those which affect many people in the same community at once; the experience of one household is highly covariate with that of other households in the community (Jalan and Ravallion 1999).

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other key terms

Shock-responsive social protection

Social protection systems adapted to scale quickly when large shocks affect many people.

Vulnerability

Conditions that increase how severely people or communities are affected by hazards.

Fragility

High exposure to risk combined with weak capacity to cope, often leading to crisis.

International crisis financing system

The network of global organisations funding crisis prevention, preparedness and response.

Parametric insurance

Insurance that pays when an agreed indicator reaches a set level, not actual losses.

Cost multiple

The cost multiple measures the average amount a government pays to receive USD 1 of payout from a financing instrument over its lifetime.