CDB to help pay Haiti’s 2018-19 insurance premiums

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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Aug 28, CMC – The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Tuesday said it had approved a three million US dollar grant to cover Haiti’s 2018-2019 insurance premiums with the Cayman islands-based Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility Segregated Portfolio Company (CCRIF SPC).
“A large percentage of the population of Haiti is exposed to multiple hazards, due to climate change, the rapid growth of unplanned settlements, and ecosystem degradation and decline,” said the CDB’s Director of Projects, Daniel Best, who also noted that among the bank’s 19 Borrowing Member Countries (BMC), Haiti is one of the most vulnerable to natural hazards.The CCRIF- SPC provides parametric insurance coverage to the Caribbean and Latin America and the CDB said that its funding will help Haiti meet the cost of the premiums for tropical cyclone, earthquake and excess rainfall coverage to which the Haitian government will contribute up to US$1.8 million.
“We are pleased that the government of Haiti is collaborating with development partners like CDB to design and implement development projects that focus on reducing the country’s risk to natural hazards, and help it adapt to climate change,” he said.
In the event of a future disaster, however, Haiti’s parametric insurance contract under CCRIF SPC is designed to pay out quickly and reliably.
“This type of insurance can play a unique role in tackling humanitarian emergencies by providing quick liquidity at a time when there is a dramatic reduction in Government revenue and, at the same time, a need for large government services expenditures,” Best said.
The CDB said that given Haiti’s fragility and high vulnerability to natural hazards, in its 2017-2021 Country Strategy for Haiti, the lending institution committed to continue paying the country’s annual CCRIF SPC premiums.
“Further, in the most recent negotiations for the replenishment of the Bank’s Special Development Fund, contributors agreed that there should be a continuation of the grant-supported programme of assistance for Haiti. Disaster risk reduction is among the main areas in which CDB will invest,” the CDB added.

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