December 18, 2018 – Southeast Asia is a diverse region home to almost 650 million people with a combined GDP of more than US$2.7 trillion. But countries across the region are heavily exposed to disaster and climate shocks that affect the lives and livelihoods of its populations and critical operations of their economies.
To make this vision a reality for each country and the region, A landmark agreement took place at the margins of the ASEAN+3 Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting on December 14, 2018 in Busan, the Republic of Korea, where representatives of the Finance Ministries of Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Singapore signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of the Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Insurance Facility or SEADRIF.
SEADRIF will be established as a facility for the benefit of all ASEAN countries initially comprising a trust and an insurance company in Singapore, in partnership and with technical support by the World Bank.
SEADRIF will be a regional platform to provide ASEAN countries with financial solutions and technical advice to increase their financial resilience to climate and disaster risks. By supporting pre-disaster planning and post-disaster relief and reconstruction funding, SEADRIF protects people and their livelihoods, and contributes to ongoing economic development and poverty reduction.
Through the establishment of SEADRIF, ASEAN+3 countries are demonstrating vision and leadership to be at the forefront of developing and implementing innovative financial solutions to better manage the impact of disasters. This will also crowd in private sector capital to complement scarce public funds in the aftermath of a disaster.
