Enabling data-driven analytics for financial protection from disasters: bridging the gap between data and decision-making

Low and middle-income countries are bearing an increasing financial burden from the impacts of disasters as both the frequency and intensity of disaster events are rising. Despite the increasing availability of disaster data, many countries lack the capability to process, refine, and act upon this data. To address this challenge, the disaster risk financing (DRF) analytics project provides technical assistance and capacity building support for countries to increase their financial resilience to disasters.

A key focus for the project is to design and support the adoption of innovative analytics tools which can help countries identify disaster risks and develop options for risk financing. Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia have used these new tools to gain a detailed understanding of their financial vulnerability to disasters and to develop new risk financing strategies. Designing the suite of generic analytical tools required an iterative development process as well as customizable modifications to respond to the specificities of disaster risks in each country. Feedback from countries on the suitability of the applications proved to be very valuable in this process, especially at the applications’ feasibility and concept design stages.