Overlapping disasters drive Pacific nations into billion-dollar losses

Overlapping disasters have pushed annual losses across the Pacific to an average five per cent of regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP), around US$1.075 billion each year.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Director for Disaster Risk Management Samantha Cook highlighted this while addressing Pacific Disaster Risk Management leaders at the 2^nd Pacific DRM Ministerial Meeting presently underway in Koror, Palau this week.

Given the Pacific’s vulnerability to natural disasters, Ms Cook said no country should bear the cost of a cyclone alone, stressing that Pacific island nations sat ‘on the frontline of the global climate crisis’ and the growing frequency and severity of disasters demanded stronger regional financing, smarter technology, and faster access to emergency funds.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Director for Disaster Risk Management Samantha Cook with delegates of the second Pacific DRM Ministerial Meeting presently underway in Koror, Palau.

SPC

“We have witnessed instances of single disaster events resulting in economic losses equivalent to 30 to 60 per cent of a country’s GDP,” Ms Cook said.

“These figures are not merely statistics; they represent damage to homes and infrastructure, disrupted livelihoods, and pressure on national budgets for basic services.”

She warned that Pacific nations were increasingly facing concurrent disasters with multiple events happening one after another or at the same time, leaving governments little time to recover.

“It is possible that one part of a country experiences a cyclone while another faces a drought,” she explained.

“For many, you are still recovering from one event when the next one strikes.”

To help ease the burden, Ms Cook said, ADB has launched a Disaster Risk Management Action Plan to strengthen preparedness, reduce risk, and ensure Pacific countries can rapidly access finance when crises occur.

Through ADB’s Crisis Response Toolkit, Pacific governments can use instruments designed to protect national budgets after disasters.

One such tool, the Debt Deferral Clause, currently being piloted in the Pacific, allowed borrowers to defer repayments for up to two years after a severe disaster, providing valuable liquidity at a critical time, Ms Cook said.

She added that ADB, with support from Japan, was working to establish a multi-donor trust fund to boost disaster risk financing in the Pacific.

The fund will support data and analytics, affordable risk products, and innovative financial resilience tools. However, Ms Cook emphasised this must be Pacific-driven, and “not donor-led”.

“It cannot be another top-down solution disconnected from the realities on the ground,” she said.

“It must be built from the ground up, shaped by the unique experiences and priorities of Pacific countries.”

Recent ADB consultations with regional governments identified shared priorities such as stronger data access, national disaster financing policies, and a regional pool of post-disaster experts.

Ms Cook said ADB was already assisting countries including Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Palau through public financial management, multi-hazard risk assessments, and resilient building codes.

“Risk reduction must be embedded in all our work. And for risks that cannot be reduced, we can use disaster risk finance to drive wider reforms.”

Ms Cook also reaffirmed ADB’s commitment to stand with the region, emphasizing that in working together, we could ensure “no single cyclone or drought wipes away years of development progress”.