Bahamas to enhance natural disaster risk management with IDB support
The Bahamas received a US$160 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for natural disaster risk governance changes.
The operation improves governance conditions for risk identification and mitigation, disaster preparedness, recovery, and financial protection public policies.
This financing should promote macroeconomic conditions that support the program’s goals. This operation also supports the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Act, which creates the legal, institutional, and fiscal foundations for better disaster risk management strategies.
In December 2022, Parliament passed a new disaster risk paradigm that prioritizes prevention based on accurate risk analysis and establishes an institutional framework that defines the responsibilities of various public entities and levels of government, as well as financial resources for preventing and responding to emergencies.
The UN-endorsed Index of Governance and Public Policy in Disaster Risk Management (iGOPP) was created by the IDB in 2012 to quantify governance conditions that support disaster risk management. iGOPP ranges from 0 to 100%. The Bahamas’ 2020 iGOPP score was 22%, behind even Latin America and the Caribbean’s average of 33%. The DRM Act raised The Bahamas’ iGOPP score to 38% in 2022.
The Bahamas is one of the Latin American and Caribbean nations most vulnerable to natural disasters, especially climate-related ones. Over the past 20 years, 14 significant disasters—mostly hurricanes—have killed 400 people, affected 50,000, and caused US$6.7 billion in damages. Climate change may worsen these effects.
In a hurricane with strong winds, 344,279 people in the country are vulnerable to disasters. The IDB-approved initiative will help them.
This loan begins a two-part programming series. 20 years and 5.5 years to repay the debt.