Creating Pathways for Disaster Risk Financing Post-COVID-19

As South Asia faces an increasingly complex and expanding disaster risk landscape, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the systemic gaps in risk management. There is a need for a paradigm shift in disaster risk reduction—from a single-hazard, single-sector perspective to a multi-hazard, multi-sectoral, and systemic risk perspective supported by parallel risk financing measures. This brief examines the current gaps in the efficient operationalisation of disaster risk financing and outlines three potentially pivotal pathways through which a systemic risk perspective can be incorporated into disaster risk financing. The aim is to build community and economic resilience to future cascading disasters. Attribution: Madhurima Sarkar-Swaisgood and Ria Sen, “Creating Pathways for Disaster Risk Financing Post-COVID-19,” ORF Issue Brief No. 454, March 2021, Observer Research Foundation.

• COVID Recovery
• COVID19
• Disaster Resilience
• Financing Development

Introduction In the past several years, South Asia [a] has been facing an increasingly complex and expanding disaster risk landscape. According to the 2019 Asia Pacific Disaster Report, as measured by population and economies exposed, countries of South Asia have some of the highest degrees of riskscape in the Asia Pacific region. The COVID-19 pandemic only heightened these risks, as the consequences of the health crisis cascaded with natural calamities and brought massive ruin to the lives and livelihoods of large populations in South Asia. These challenging times call for a paradigm shift in disaster risk reduction—from a single hazard, single sector perspective to a multi-hazard, multi-sectoral, and systemic risk perspective. This paradigm shift needs to be supported by parallel risk financing measures that are more targeted towards building both economic and community resilience. The aim is to strengthen resilience to future manifold disasters that could visit the peoples of the region. In the context of COVID-19, this brief examines the current gaps in disaster management and financing frameworks and presents three key pathways through which innovations in disaster risk financing can incorporate the multi-hazard, multi-sectoral and systemic risk perspective to build resilience in South Asia.