ADB support Pacific Disaster Resilience Program.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved 24-million dollars in contingent disaster financing for the second phase of the Pacific Disaster Resilience Program.

This is aimed at strengthening and boosting disaster resilience efforts in Solomon Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Marshall Islands and Tonga.

ADB’s assistance will include a 3-million dollars policy-based loan and a 3-million dollars grant to Solomon Islands, and grants worth 6-million dollars each to FSM, the Marshall Islands, and Tonga.

A statement from ADB said all the grants are financed from the ADB’s grant-based development financing vehicle.

The policy-based loan comes from ADB’s ordinary capital resources.
Meanwhile, ADB said the second phase will provide a second round of contingent disaster financing for Tonga, along with three new countries namely FSM, Marshall Islands, and Solomon Islands.

ADB Climate Change Specialist for the Pacific Ms. Hanna Uusimaa said based on the success of the program’s first phase, the second phase will support policy actions in disaster risk management and provide a source of rapidly disbursing finance for timely disaster response and early recovery.

The policy actions supported under the program’s second phase focus on strengthening policy, governance, and institutional arrangements for disaster risk management; improving investment planning processes and tools; and expanding disaster risk financing in participating countries.

The program operates under the guidance of the region’s own frameworks for resilient development and addresses risks pertaining to disaster events that would normally exhaust annual contingency budgets or emergency funds but may not be cost-effectively covered by insurance.