The Role of Financial Services in Humanitarian Crises
Humanitarian crises pose a formidable development challenge. Whether caused by conflict, natural disaster, climate-related events, or some combination of the three, crises have been steadily increasing in frequency, severity, and complexity. While...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/687701493270597254/The-role-of-financial-services-in-humanitarian-crises http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26511 |
| Summary: | Humanitarian crises pose a formidable
development challenge. Whether caused by conflict, natural
disaster, climate-related events, or some combination of the
three, crises have been steadily increasing in frequency,
severity, and complexity. While the nature and incidences of
these crises vary significantly, they affect millions of
people, particularly the most vulnerable. Some populations
are displaced from their communities or countries as a
result of crises; others stay where they are, by choice or
necessity, and must navigate unpredictable and dangerous
environments. Forced displacement is becoming more common
and more protracted. In December 2015, The majority remains
within their country (IDMC 2016). In this context, this
paper seeks to enhance the knowledge of policy makers and
donors on the role of financial services mitigating
humanitarian crises by synthesizing existing empirical
evidence as well as operational lessons from programmatic
evaluations. Where evidence is strong enough, the paper
recommends actions that policy makers and donors can take to
improve the provision of financial services to
crisis-affected populations. The paper also identifies
future research and policy priorities. The proposals
outlined in this paper, which was funded by the State and
Peace-Building Fund within the World Bank Group, directly
supports our broader objective of promoting diversified,
efficient, and inclusive financial systems at the global and
country levels. Continued collaboration across sectors,
institutions, and borders is the only way that the global
development community will be able to address the immense
challenge of forced displacement in a sustainable manner.
The detailed analysis in this paper will provide invaluable
guidance to the World Bank Group’s country operations as
well as to our development partners. |
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