Blogs

The World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) are working to develop a recipe to advance resilience for South Asia and beyond. For example, as part of its plan to provide safe havens to nearly 14 million people in nine coastal districts, Bangladesh is making emergency evacuation shelters more accessible to differently-abled people.

Hurricane Dorian made landfall in The Bahamas as a Category 5 storm on September 1, battering the northern islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco for almost three days. In the days following the hurricane, reports clearly showed devastation but left many questions. The World Bank’s Global Rapid post-disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) approach, developed by its Disaster-Resilience Analytics and Solutions (D-RAS) team, was able to address many of the critical questions within 13 days using a rapid, desk-based approach. 

In an era of worsening climate and disaster risks, Sameh Wahba, Global Director for the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice and Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction, lay out the case for making our homes and schools safer and stronger.