Money buffer against disasters, Home Affairs Minister urges

“The economic impact of natural disasters in our region has been huge, exceeding US$22 billion over the period 1950 to 2016, according to the IMF.

“Natural disasters have ten times a greater adverse impact on the people in small states when compared to those of larger states.” – Barbados Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson

PHILIPSBURG, St Maarten – Caribbean disaster experts meeting here for an annual conference on comprehensive disaster management have been told to delve deeper into disaster financing in a bid to cushion the shock from hazards.

(Barbados ) Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson suggested greater disaster risk reduction mechanisms to build resilience as he addressed the 11th Comprehensive Disaster Management conference under the theme: The Road to Resilience: Safeguarding our Communities, Livelihoods, and Economies.

Calling on Caribbean governments to examine the concept of disaster financing before an event, he suggested this could be achieved by combining self-insurance, which would involve building fiscal buffers or contingency funds; risk transfer arrangements, such as catastrophe insurance or capital market options, including issuing catastrophe bonds or participating in regional risk-sharing solutions; and contingency financing.

The Minister painted a picture of staggering loss in the last seven decades of impact from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other disasters: Between 1950 and 2016, the Caribbean was hit by 324 natural disasters, during which approximately 250,000 people died, and more than 24 million were affected through injury or loss of homes.

Read more at: Barbados Today

Source: CARICOM TODAY