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World Bank approves $100 million to help Morocco withstand natural disasters
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This is in addition to an existing $200 million funding to improve the country’s institutional capacity for disaster risk management
The World Bank Saturday approved $100 million in additional financing to help Morocco strengthen its ability to withstand the impact of natural disasters.
The extra financing will be used to scale up an existing $200 million Integrated Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Resilience program by improving the country’s institutional capacity for disaster risk management and risk-reduction investments.
“Protecting the people and economy against natural hazards can save Morocco over US$800 million a year,” said Jesko Hentschel, World Bank Maghreb Country Director. “The financing will be used to continue the results-driven DRM program, with the aim of protecting the country’s most vulnerable populations.”
“The focus of this new operation will be to strengthen the impact of risk reduction investments and enhance the monitoring and evaluation of investments,” said Philipp Petermann, Disaster Risk Management Specialist, and Task Team Leader.
“The program will accelerate results on the ground by building on reforms the Kingdom has been implementing with the support from the World Bank. It will also seek to promote a gender-inclusive approach to managing disaster risk,” Petermann said.
The World Bank has been stepping up its DRM support to Morocco over the past few years, offering support ranging from financial assistance to advanced technical advice. A contingent credit line against catastrophic risks, approved in 2019, was fully disbursed in April 2020 to support the Government of Morocco’s response to the Covid-19 crisis.