This regional plan was launched within the framework of the annual meetings of the Inter -American Development Bank (IDB) and its financial arm, IDB Invest, which opened on Wednesday in Santiago, Chile with a round of seminars and that from Friday until Sunday congregate the assemblies of governors of both agencies.
“Strengthening resilience to natural disasters is no longer optional; it is a necessity,” said IDB president, Ilalan Goldfajn.
There are 37 countries and more than 15 organizations that have already signed their declaration of commitment to the program detailed to the press the vice president of sectors and knowledge of the IDB, Ana María Ibáñez, according to which “the regional approach is important because acting together allows you to leverage economies of scale and reduce the costs of addressing natural disasters from prevention.”
The plan will be extended until 2030 and is supported by three pillars: improvement of information on risk and strengthening of regional capacities; Creation of a coordination mechanism between nations in the area and development of innovative financial mechanisms.
Latin America and the Caribbean, as Ibáñez recalls, is “the second region most vulnerable to the world’s natural disasters.” In 2024 he registered 74 great magnitude events that affected seven million people and generated losses for more than 10,000 million.
“That also has a disproportionate impact on the poor and vulnerable population, which can generate important cycles and poverty traps. If we look at the poor population of Latin America and the Caribbean, which are around 200 million people, about 50 % are located in areas with high probability of disasters,” said the Colombian economist.
The year in which a disaster occurs, GDP growth can fall between 2 and 4 percentage points and the crucial IDB is betting on resilience in view of the fact that 85 % of the losses caused by disasters between 1986 and 2015 were not insured.
Among the innovative financial tools to be supported are “resilience bonds.” The objective is to make efforts with two first countries in 2026, still to be defined, and replicate these efforts in others until 2030.
The IDB will help countries design these bonds by definition of indicators that allow them to go to financial markets to achieve resources.
“It is a way to leverage resources from the private sector tied to countries achieve objectives to improve resilience,” said Ibáñez.
The initiative also seeks the support of the private sector to provide technological innovations that improve the capacity for preparation and response, participate in strategic alliances with public sector and international organizations and codesñar financial solutions to reduce costs.
‘Prepared and resilient in the Americas’ also affects the importance of information on risks and analysis tools.
“For natural disasters management it is very important to have data, data that allow governments to make investment prioritization decisions,” says the economist.
The IDB intends with this program to complement everything already existing in the region in this regard.
The organization, founded in 1959, recalls that it has been applying a “proactive” approach to risk management decades. In the last ten years he has approved about US $ 1 thousand1 billion in disaster risk management programs and has granted coverage against disasters to 14 countries through contingent loans for about 4,000 million.
With EFE information