World Bank's Role in Reducing Impacts of Disasters

Abstract

The mission of the World Bank is to fight poverty. An important part of this mission is to assist developing countries to prepare for and recover from natural disasters. The World Bank has a long tradition of supporting the disaster management efforts of its client countries. Between 1980 and 1998, the Bank approved approximately 200 operations related to natural disasters, amounting to more than $14 billion in loans. These figures include both postdisaster reconstruction operations as well as projects with components to mitigate losses before disaster strikes. In recent years, the Bank has placed more emphasis on integrating disaster prevention and mitigation measures into its development activities. After a discussion of the costs of disasters and how they relate to the Bank's mission, this article discusses the Bank's experience in providing disaster-related assistance, provides information on current Bank initiatives aimed at making disaster reduction a central component of development, and discusses the future direction of the Bank's disaster risk-management agenda.