Why aren’t we investing more in disaster resilience, despite the rising costs of disaster events? Decision-makers in governments, businesses, households, and development agencies tend to focus on avoiding losses from disasters, and perceive the return on investment as uncertain – only realised if a somewhat unlikely disaster event actually happens.
The webinar on 8 February 2017 presented a new business case for Disaster Risk Management based on the multiple dividends of resilience. This looks beyond only avoided losses (the first dividend) to the wider benefits gained independently of whether or not the disaster event occurs. These include unleashing entrepreneurial activities and productive investments by lowering the looming threat of losses from disasters and enabling businesses, farmers and homeowners to take positive risks (the second dividend); and co-benefits of resilience measures beyond just disaster risk (the third dividend), such as flood embankments in Bangladesh that double as roads, or wetlands in Colombo that reduce urban heat extremes. The discussion also reflected on recent efforts to build a stronger business case for resilience in the private sector including the insurance sector.
The webinar outlined the concept and illustrates the different dividends, based on a new book ‘Realising the Triple Dividend of Resilience’ (The book and project have been funded by the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).