The Multi Donor Fund for Aceh and Nias
(MDF) and the Java Reconstruction Fund (JRF) have played
significant roles in the remarkable recovery of Aceh, Nias
and Java, following some of the worst disasters in Indonesia
in recent years. The MDF and the JRF, which is patterned
after it, are each considered a highly successful model for
post-disaster reconstruction. This paper discusses the value
of a phased approach to post-disaster reconstruction as a

This paper presents an assessment of the
first phase (2008?2009) of Sierra Leone's cash for work
program based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis
examining program design features, main processes and
impact. The assessment highlights that while cash for work
was an appropriate crisis response, the challenge of
achieving good targeting should not be underestimated.
Findings from the assessment point to high inclusion errors

Pakistan experienced severe flooding
after torrential monsoon rains hit southern Sindh and the
adjoining areas of Punjab and north-eastern Balochistan in
August 2011. Flash floods triggered by the monsoon rain
caused severe damage to infrastructure in the affected
areas. Entire villages and urban centers have been flooded,
homes have been destroyed, and over a million acres of crops
and agricultural lands have been damaged. A Damage and Needs

The report is divided into two volumes.
The first volume includes the fundamental content of the
report. It is organized as follows. Chapter one provides a
conceptual framework to analyze risk and vulnerability and
provides a definition of social protection. Chapter two
assesses the main risks faced by the Malagasy population as
well as its vulnerability profile. Chapter three reviews
Madagascar's social protection policies, the

This is a Regional Program Review (RPR)
of the World Bank's support for the MBC. The review is
framed around an assessment of five Global Environment
Facility (GEF)-financed World Bank implemented projects in
Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama that had
the common objective of consolidating the Mesoamerican
Biological Corridor (MBC). It also reports on the
achievements of trust fund activities, financed by the Bank

The new environment strategy for the
World Bank Group lays out an ambitious action agenda that
seeks to respond to calls from our client countries for a
new kind of development path, one that supports growth while
focusing more on sustainability and ensuring that the
environment is a key enabler for green, more-inclusive
growth. This strategy recognizes the importance of our
convening power, access to policy makers, analytical work,

Today, 370 million people live in cities
in earthquake prone areas and 310 million in cities with
high probability of tropical cyclones. By 2050, these
numbers are likely to more than double. Mortality risk
therefore is highly concentrated in many of the world s
cities and economic risk even more so. This paper discusses
what sets hazard risk in urban areas apart, provides
estimates of valuation of hazard risk, and discusses

Executive Directors continued to play an
important role as the World Bank faced many challenges in a
global post crisis economy. The Board considered a number of
key documents in preparation for the committee on
development effectiveness meetings. These included the World
Development Report 2011, which focuses on conflict,
security, and development, and responding to global food
price volatility and its impact on food security, which

The Japanese experience shows that if
done right- preventive investments pay. The Japanese
government invested about 7 to 8 percent of the total budget
for disaster risk management (DRM) in the 1960s, a move that
most probably decreased disaster deaths. Cost-effectiveness
analysis (CEA) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of DRM
projects have been widely implemented both at national and
local levels in Japan. Different procedures for such

In Europe, it can be estimated that hydro-meteorological information and early warning systems save several hundreds of lives per year, avoid between 460 million and 2.7 billion Euros of disaster asset losses per year, and produce between 3.4 and 34 billion of additional benefits per year through the optimization of economic production in weather-sensitive sectors (agriculture, energy, etc.).

Following the Great East Japan
Earthquake (GEJE), the government of Japan responded
promptly to stabilize markets and ensure a swift recovery.
Economic activity has since started picking up, in part to
domestic demand driven by the massive reconstruction effort.
Uncertainties remain, however, surrounding the restructuring
of power supply and both national and global economic
prospects. The year 2011 will be remembered for the severe

Over the last several years, the
Government of Togo has made important advances in the area
of social protection. Although Togo has had limited social
insurance and social assistance programs, the economic shock
and natural disasters starting in 2008 brought the need for
better mechanisms of social protection to the fore. The
Government response has focused on measures to address the
needs of the affected populations, while building the