Building disaster resilience in the Philippines

This paper is part of a series highlighting the World Bank's achievements in disaster risk management initiatives. It presents the analytical support provided by the World Bank in close collaboration with the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) on the basis of the Government-led Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) following the devastating 2009 typhoons, to formulate a disaster risk financing strategy to reduce the fiscal burden arising from the recurring costs of disasters in the Philippines. It describes: (i) its context; (ii) the World Bank approach; (iii) the results and achievements; (iv) the lessons learned; and (iv) the next steps, such as the inclusion of the danger from natural disasters as part of the government yearly fiscal risk statement to improve its financial options and identify different layers of risk, as well as support to the country’s Department of Education in improving disaster-resilient infrastructure and to the Department of Tourism’s efforts to reduce the vulnerability of heritage structures to natural hazards.