Every year, disasters cause an average of $300 billion in economic losses. But these numbers don’t tell the full story: Middle Income countries suffer the worst impacts relative to GDP as booming economic growth and rapid urbanization, and infrastructure development put more and more assets at risk. Across the world, the poor and vulnerable suffer devastating impacts that can affect their ability to thrive and lift themselves out of poverty.
To support these efforts to strengthen financial resilience against natural disasters, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the World Bank (WB) have joined efforts since 2012 through a program dedicated to middle-income countries vulnerable to the impacts of disasters. This Knowledge Exchange Series aims to empower governments supported under the SECO program to increase their financial resilience against natural disasters and their capacity to meet post-disaster funding needs, which are key to better managing their contingent liabilities related to natural disasters and become more effective risk managers. This will provide governments an opportunity to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experiences, and good practices. The Knowledge Exchange Series features 8 virtual sessions with complementary Fact Sheets. Each session is promoted with a captivating teaser video and enables simultaneous interpretation services (English, Spanish, French and Albanian). This Knowledge Exchange Series offers certificates.