Eastern and Southern Africa is home to 700 million people, a region facing some of the most severe climate-related challenges globally. Devastating floods, tropical storms, and prolonged droughts severely impact lives, livelihoods, and infrastructures.
In the aftermath of these events, mobilizing financing quickly is crucial to cover loss and damages, mitigate long-term impacts and avoid negative coping mechanisms.
To address this need, the World Bank has introduced the REPAIR Program (Regional Emergency Preparedness & Access to Inclusive Recovery)—a regional initiative designed to provide countries with pre-positioned financing, ready to be deployed within seven days of a disaster. This program offers a suite of financial instruments tailored to respond to varying scales of climate shocks including reserves, contingent financing and sovereign insurance.
REPAIR is built on three core principles: speed, flexibility, and sustainability. Speed—to ensure timely disbursement of funds; flexibility—to empower countries to allocate resources according to their specific needs; and sustainability—to leverage financing from both public and private sources for long-term resilience. Comoros, Madagascar, and Mozambique will spearhead this initiative, demonstrating its effectiveness and laying the groundwork for nine additional countries eager to adopt this innovative approach.