Natural Disasters

Malcolm Bruce
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what resources his Department has provided for disaster risk reduction strategies in countries prone to disasters.

Mr. Thomas
DFID's current financial management system does not record total resources spent on disaster risk reduction (DRR) centrally, because DRR programmes can be included under a range of types of assistance, from education (for example DRR education in schools) to infrastructure (for example earthquake-proof building).

However, DFID has a commitment to allocate approximately 10 per cent. of the funding it provides in response to each natural disaster to prepare for and mitigate the impact of future disasters, where this can be done effectively. Under this commitment, DFID has pledged £7.5 million following the Indian Ocean Tsunami; £5.5 million following the Pakistan earthquake and £500,000 following the Yogyakarta (Indonesia) earthquake. Other examples of support for DRR at country level include: £50 million for the Chars (river islands) Livelihoods Project in Bangladesh which aims to increase livelihood security for £6.5 million vulnerable people in flood-prone districts; £3.8 million to an insurance fund to provide Caribbean Governments with fast payouts after natural disasters; and £2.9 million for a consortium of NGOs in Niger to help communities prevent food security crises.

DFID also provides funds for multilateral and regional organisations working on DRR. We have provided: £3 million for the United Nations international strategy for disaster risk reduction; £4.38 million for the World Bank's global facility for disaster risk reduction; £2.5 million for the ProVention Consortium; £2.15 million for the International Federation of the Red Cross; £3.3 million for the Pan American Health Organisation for DRR programmes; as well as some resources through its £7 million annual contribution to the United Nations Development Programme's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR).