WBG: Sovereign catastrophe risk pools – 15 years on and still more to come

Like many other good ideas, this one started on a paper napkin.  Fifteen years ago, a World Bank team was in Jamaica to arrange emergency relief funding to cope with destruction of Hurricane Ivan. This disaster destroyed 6,000 houses and affected almost 400,000 people. In a restaurant in Kingston, we began brainstorming ideas for creating […]

Using Parametric Insurance to Address Rapid Post-Disaster Financing

Introduction The Philippines is a disaster-prone country as it is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire and within the Western North Pacific basin, one of the basins where tropical cyclones are formed. Catastrophic typhoons like Haiyan (Yolanda) in 2013, Bopha (Pablo) in 2012, and Ketsana (Ondoy) in 2009, and earthquakes like the Bohol and […]