Lesotho Disaster Risk Financing Diagnostic

[摘要] This diagnostic study is prepared at therequest of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Government ofLesotho (GoL)and aims to identify options to strengthen thecountry's financial resilience to disasters. Itincludes a review of disaster response costs and the currentdisaster risk financing (DRF) arrangements of the GoL,including institutional and legal frameworks, and proposessome recommendations. Lesotho is prone to weather-relatedperils such as droughts, floods, and storms. Drought affectsthe largest number of people. For instance, a drought in2015/16 affected almost half of the population. Overtwo-thirds of the population—71 percent—is involved in someform of agricultural activity. The majority of the ruralpopulation engages in subsistence agriculture, working onsmall rain-fed farms or are livestock producers. Disasterscan severely impact agriculture, thus devastatinglivelihoods and increasing food insecurity in a countryalready characterized by low agricultural productivity andreliance on food imports. Natural disasters in Lesothojeopardize efforts to eliminate extreme poverty and boostshared prosperity Poverty in the country is decliningslowly, and as of 2017 remained high, at 49.7 percent (atthe national poverty line). Disasters disproportionallyimpact poor and vulnerable households, pushing them back orfurther into poverty (Hallegatte et al. 2017). According tothe World Bank (forthcoming) Poverty Assessment, without the2015/16 drought, poverty in Lesotho would have decreasedtwice as fast over the past 15 years. Natural disasters canalso impact the macro-fiscal situation of the country. Theaverage annual cost of disaster response is estimated atUS$19.3 million, or 1.6 percent of the total budgetexpenditure in the 2019/20 fiscal year. For more infrequentand severeshocks, the costs can be much higher: US$31.8million (or 2.6 percent of total budget) for shocks thatoccur every 10 years, and 45.3 million US Dollars (or 3.8percent of total budget) for shocks that occur every 50 years.

[发布日期] 2019-12-01 [发布机构] World Bank, Washington, DC

[学科分类] 社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

[关键词] NATURAL DISASTER;POVERTY;VULNERABILITY;FISCAL IMPACT;DROUGHT