GP2025 | Day 2 Reflections: Scaling DRR Financing — or Just Talking the talk?
Thursday 5 June 2025 | Geneva
If Day 1 was about the urgency of governance and information, Day 2 was about money — or rather, how little of it goes where it should. For the technical audience, we covered terms like efficiency, effectiveness and adequacy.
From the high-level panels to the simulated role-play games, a shared message emerged: we know what to do, we just aren’t doing it. Why? By the end of the day, I left with more questions than answers — and maybe that’s the most honest thing to say😂
Is today’s disaster the outcome of yesterday’s development model? Are we investing in resilience — or just externalizing risk, again and again? what is the economic value of resilience? these are some of the questions I left with (Keep an eye out for some publications on these)
HLD3: What Will It Take to Scale DRR Financing?
This panel featured insights from government leaders, the ADB, private insurers, and UN-linked risk modellers. We heard big numbers: $2.3 trillion annually in disaster-related costs when cascading and ecosystem impacts are factored in. We also heard what many already know: “Resilience needs to move from being a buzzword to having a face.”
The ADB highlighted its shift from dialogue to action, with efforts to:
Incentivize risk-informed financing at the subnational level
Mobilize resources through innovative tools (e.g. catastrophe bonds)
Mainstream DRR into sectoral planning and budgeting
From the insurance world, a clear takeaway emerged: insurance isn’t just about post-disaster recovery — it can also raise pre-disaster risk awareness. But integrating it into national systems remains uneven.
Key provocation: Can we truly talk about DRR financing without first addressing the development pathways that created this risk in the first place?
Role-Playing Game: Who Sits at the DRR Table?
This simulation was thought-provoking, if slightly artificial. But it raised an essential point:
How many stakeholders actually sit at the same table in real-life DRR planning?
What is the real mandate — and accountability — of each actor?
“So much is public in theory, but privatized in practice.”
Accountability is meaningless if mandates are vague and incentives misaligned.
TS3-1: Integrating DRR into the Global Financial System
This session tackled the hard stuff: regulation, financial architecture, incentive design.
“The greatest risk is failing to act. It is not the floods or the droughts.”
Highlights included:
Seychelles using catastrophe bonds and extra-budgetary accounts
UK’s PPP focus to stretch limited public finance
Spain’s call to spend money where it saves most
World Bank’s sustainability and resilience-linked instruments, including lower interest rates for borrowers meeting resilience targets
We also learned about tools like:
G20 Principles on DRR financing
Tax incentives in Peru and Kenya to encourage pre-disaster resilience investment
Key question: Can DRR financing be truly integrated into financial systems if we don’t reform the incentives driving private risk-taking?
Learning Summary – What I Took Away
What I learned:
Insurance is a double-edged sword — it can promote awareness but often reinforces post-event thinking
Resilience needs to be tracked with development impact indicators, not just financial metrics; but what is the value of resilience?
Public finance will never be enough — DRR financing must involve incentives, partnerships, and regulatory frameworks
DRR is not an add-on — it should be at the core of budgeting, planning, and governance
For readers of this site, key takeaways:
The financing gap is not just financial — it's structural
DRR should not be siloed from broader development justice or fiscal policy agendas
We need new economic languages for resilience — beyond just ROI
We started the day asking what it would take to scale DRR financing. We ended it with harder questions: Whose development is being protected? Who bears the burden of inaction? And why are we still not doing enough, even when we know the cost? With the Financing for Development conference in Seville just weeks away, these are timely questions to keep in mind, and i hope more (questions) and answers will come for the F4D!
“Let’s start spending money where we can save it.” — Spanish delegate
