Lesotho Disaster Risk Financing Diagnostic

This diagnostic study is prepared at the request of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Government of Lesotho (GoL)and aims to identify options to strengthen the country's financial resilience to disasters. It includes a review of disaster response...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/555701578344878017/Lesotho-Disaster-Risk-Financing-Diagnostic
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33141
id okr-10986-33141
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-331412021-05-25T09:31:35Z Lesotho Disaster Risk Financing Diagnostic World Bank NATURAL DISASTER POVERTY VULNERABILITY FISCAL IMPACT DROUGHT FLOOD RISK DISASTER RESPONSE DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT DISASTER RISK FINANCING CONTINGENCY FUND PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INSURANCE SOCIAL SAFETY NETS This diagnostic study is prepared at the request of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Government of Lesotho (GoL)and aims to identify options to strengthen the country's financial resilience to disasters. It includes a review of disaster response costs and the current disaster risk financing (DRF) arrangements of the GoL, including institutional and legal frameworks, and proposes some recommendations. Lesotho is prone to weather-related perils such as droughts, floods, and storms. Drought affects the largest number of people. For instance, a drought in 2015/16 affected almost half of the population. Over two-thirds of the population—71 percent—is involved in some form of agricultural activity. The majority of the rural population engages in subsistence agriculture, working on small rain-fed farms or are livestock producers. Disasters can severely impact agriculture, thus devastating livelihoods and increasing food insecurity in a country already characterized by low agricultural productivity and reliance on food imports. Natural disasters in Lesotho jeopardize efforts to eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity Poverty in the country is declining slowly, and as of 2017 remained high, at 49.7 percent (at the national poverty line). Disasters disproportionally impact poor and vulnerable households, pushing them back or further into poverty (Hallegatte et al. 2017). According to the World Bank (forthcoming) Poverty Assessment, without the 2015/16 drought, poverty in Lesotho would have decreased twice as fast over the past 15 years. Natural disasters can also impact the macro-fiscal situation of the country. The average annual cost of disaster response is estimated at US$19.3 million, or 1.6 percent of the total budget expenditure in the 2019/20 fiscal year. For more infrequent and severeshocks, the costs can be much higher: US$31.8 million (or 2.6 percent of total budget) for shocks that occur every 10 years, and 45.3 million US Dollars (or 3.8 percent of total budget) for shocks that occur every 50 years. 2020-01-07T17:15:45Z 2020-01-07T17:15:45Z 2019-12-01 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/555701578344878017/Lesotho-Disaster-Risk-Financing-Diagnostic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33141 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Africa Lesotho
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic NATURAL DISASTER
POVERTY
VULNERABILITY
FISCAL IMPACT
DROUGHT
FLOOD RISK
DISASTER RESPONSE
DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT
DISASTER RISK FINANCING
CONTINGENCY FUND
PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
INSURANCE
SOCIAL SAFETY NETS
spellingShingle NATURAL DISASTER
POVERTY
VULNERABILITY
FISCAL IMPACT
DROUGHT
FLOOD RISK
DISASTER RESPONSE
DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT
DISASTER RISK FINANCING
CONTINGENCY FUND
PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
INSURANCE
SOCIAL SAFETY NETS
World Bank
Lesotho Disaster Risk Financing Diagnostic
geographic_facet Africa
Lesotho
description This diagnostic study is prepared at the request of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Government of Lesotho (GoL)and aims to identify options to strengthen the country's financial resilience to disasters. It includes a review of disaster response costs and the current disaster risk financing (DRF) arrangements of the GoL, including institutional and legal frameworks, and proposes some recommendations. Lesotho is prone to weather-related perils such as droughts, floods, and storms. Drought affects the largest number of people. For instance, a drought in 2015/16 affected almost half of the population. Over two-thirds of the population—71 percent—is involved in some form of agricultural activity. The majority of the rural population engages in subsistence agriculture, working on small rain-fed farms or are livestock producers. Disasters can severely impact agriculture, thus devastating livelihoods and increasing food insecurity in a country already characterized by low agricultural productivity and reliance on food imports. Natural disasters in Lesotho jeopardize efforts to eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity Poverty in the country is declining slowly, and as of 2017 remained high, at 49.7 percent (at the national poverty line). Disasters disproportionally impact poor and vulnerable households, pushing them back or further into poverty (Hallegatte et al. 2017). According to the World Bank (forthcoming) Poverty Assessment, without the 2015/16 drought, poverty in Lesotho would have decreased twice as fast over the past 15 years. Natural disasters can also impact the macro-fiscal situation of the country. The average annual cost of disaster response is estimated at US$19.3 million, or 1.6 percent of the total budget expenditure in the 2019/20 fiscal year. For more infrequent and severeshocks, the costs can be much higher: US$31.8 million (or 2.6 percent of total budget) for shocks that occur every 10 years, and 45.3 million US Dollars (or 3.8 percent of total budget) for shocks that occur every 50 years.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Lesotho Disaster Risk Financing Diagnostic
title_short Lesotho Disaster Risk Financing Diagnostic
title_full Lesotho Disaster Risk Financing Diagnostic
title_fullStr Lesotho Disaster Risk Financing Diagnostic
title_full_unstemmed Lesotho Disaster Risk Financing Diagnostic
title_sort lesotho disaster risk financing diagnostic
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/555701578344878017/Lesotho-Disaster-Risk-Financing-Diagnostic
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33141
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