The Asian Development Bank (ADB) disclosed on Thursday that it has created a new financing mechanism to support developing countries in disaster preparedness and response. 

In a statement, ADB said the new contingent disaster financing (CDF) mechanism will strengthen disaster preparedness and provide quick-disbursing budget support following natural disasters.

ADB said the creation of the CDF was approved by ADB’s Board of Directors on Thursday. It aims to support the bank’s Strategy 2030 which aims to increase efforts in tackling climate change and disaster resilience.  

“CDF will provide a quick and flexible source of funds for developing member countries affected by disasters until funds from other sources become available,” said the Director General of ADB’s Strategy, Policy, and Partnerships Department Tomoyuki Kimura. “It will also help promote greater preparedness and risk management in developing member countries prone to disasters.”

The CDF will cover disasters triggered by natural hazards such as typhoons, floods, earthquakes, droughts, and tsunamis. 

It supports essential policy reforms to strengthen disaster preparedness that are to be completed before a natural disaster occurs. Once a CDF is approved for a country, it remains active until a disaster occurs. 

The country can then quickly access the approved financing to help relieve fiscal constraints for urgent relief and recovery efforts. This will prevent disruptive reallocations from priority budget programs.

“Where necessary, CDF disbursements can be accompanied by follow-up assistance through ADB’s other emergency or regular lending instruments to support recovery and reconstruction,” Kimura said.

ADB said the Asia and the Pacific, where its developing member countries are located, is the world’s most natural disaster-prone region. 

Between 2014 and 2017, countries in the region suffered 55 earthquakes, 217 storms and cyclones, and 236 cases of severe flooding, affecting 650 million people and causing about 33,000 deaths, according to the United Nations.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. In 2018, it made commitments of new loans and grants amounting to $21.6 billion.

The land ministry is establishing a system to allow for the quick dispatch of workers with civil engineering and other expertise to areas hit by natural disasters, after a succession of torrential downpours and other large-scale calamities hit the nation in recent years.

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry set up an organ in each of its nine regional development bureaus from Hokkaido to Kyushu in the current fiscal year to coordinate the expedited dispatch and training of members of the Technical Emergency Control Force.

 The TEC Force specialist group, which was created to quickly provide technical assistance to local governments affected by large-scale disasters, is tasked with assessing damage and implementing restoration work. It marked its 10th anniversary last year.

As of April, it had 12,654 registered members, many of whom are officials of regional development bureaus.

A total of 80,000 members have so far been sent to areas damaged by more than 90 major disasters, including the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Reflecting the recent increase in the number of large-scale disasters, members are sent to affected areas roughly 10 times per year, about double the annual figure when the force was established.

At first, the TEC Force provided assistance at the request of local governments, but after the March 2011 disaster, it began offering large-scale support immediately after disasters.

The number of personnel at regional development bureaus has continued to fall, making it difficult for those involved in developing and managing rivers, roads and other forms of infrastructure to concurrently serve as managers of TEC Force members.

To address this, the ministry in April spun off disaster-related sections at the regional bureaus to take charge of the TEC Force members. Each regional bureau now has a specialized team of about 20 for the task.

When a disaster occurs, the team makes the necessary arrangements with local governments, police and fire authorities, the Self-Defense Forces and other organizations or agencies to dispatch TEC Force members. When not responding to a disaster, members conduct training and educational programs.

In a related development, the government will hasten the process for designating seriously damaged areas as being eligible for larger state subsidies in order to facilitate their reconstruction. The ministry believes the swift dispatch of the TEC Force will help facilitate the survey work needed for the designation, ministry officials said.

The ministry is also considering adding specialists from the private sector to the TEC Force, such as engineers with architectural and land-surveying experience.

The TEC Force “needs more members if the possibility of large-scale disasters, such as a quake originating in the Nankai Trough, is taken into account,” a ministry official said, referring to the trough located off the Pacific coast.

The ministry plans to work out a set of specific measures to reinforce the TEC Force, including a new program to train members, starting in fiscal 2020.