Southeast Asia may soon have insurance funds to rebuild public infrastructure after major disasters, preventing essential services from collapsing in calamity-prone nations.
Led by the Philippines through the Department of Finance (DOF), members of the Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Insurance Facility (SEADRIF) have agreed to develop the SEADRIF Sovereign Asset and Fiscal Empowerment (SEADRIF-SAFE) Facility, an insurance payout for critical public assets hit by typhoons, earthquakes, floods and other disasters.
SEADRIF-SAFE will include disaster insurance in development infrastructure projects funded by bilateral and multilateral partners from the outset, ensuring protection is already in place long before calamities occur.
‘Disasters are not just national problems they are regional challenges that demand global solutions,’ Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said in a press release on Wednesday.
The DOF also said this facility was ‘designed to prevent the recurring problem of delayed reconstruction due to lack of readily available government funds.’ This means member nations can speedily recover and rebuild after a disaster.
Recent disasters
More than 3.5 million Filipinos were affected by the combined impact of Typhoons Nando, Opong and Mirasol, along with the enhanced southwest monsoon or habagat in late September, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Typhoon Opong (international name: Bualoi) also struck Vietnam’s central coast, killing at least 51 people and injuring 164.
On Sept. 30, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit northern Cebu in Bogo City, killing nearly 80, displacing hundreds, and causing significant structural damage to public infrastructure.
SEADRIF member nations include the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam.
The initiative was first laid out at the 8th Technical Meeting of SEADRIF held in Kyoto, Japan last Oct. 1 and 2.