The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the country’s development partner, presented the framework to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), on Wednesday, January 21, in Accra for its accomplishment. It is built on eight strategic pillars – comprehensive identification, quantification, and mapping of disaster-related fiscal risks. 

The others are integrating disaster risk analysis into planning and budgeting and establishing sovereign and sub-sovereign disaster risk financing instruments. 

The rest  are developing private risk transfer solutions; strengthening coordination and institutional capacity; improving legal and regulatory frameworks; enhancing industry and community resilience; and adopting a layered risk management approach. 

The initiative, designed to help reduce fiscal vulnerability from disasters, protect lives and livelihoods, and attract private sector investment, has pre-arranged financial instruments to strengthen national resilience against future shocks. This will be achieved through ensuring timely, predictable, and cost-effective access to financial resources for emergency response and recovery, with fires, droughts, and floods as the priority disasters. 

Dr Abdul-Razak Saeed, Head of Environment and Climate, UNDP Ghana, said the strategy was not just a document but a roadmap for action towards moving from reactive to proactive disaster risk management. He explained that budget reallocation was necessary for effective planning and resource appropriation in Ghana’s disaster management, with the framework helping to identify financial assets and approaches for effective application. 

Dr Saeed said it was important to develop innovative means to finance the country’s disaster and climate efforts, including crowd financing, encouraging the media to help attract private sector actors and other interested parties to support Ghana’s actions. He pledged UNDP’s commitment to the operationalisation of the framework, ensuring it became a functional tool rather than a symbolic document. He said the success of the strategy would depend on broad stakeholder engagement, sustained investment, and strong leadership. 

Major Dr. Joseph Bikanyi Kuyon (RTd), Director-General, NADMO, said Ghana had positioned itself for shift in disaster risk financing, ensuring that investments yielded better outcomes with timely interventions and climate response. He noted that the framework would address the age-long constraints associated with the absence of a dedicated disaster risk financing and enhance the country’s ability to respond effectively to emergencies as well as climate adaptation and mitigation.

Major Kuyon (Rtd) said the framework would help realise the economic benefits of proactive investment, noting that; “it is far cheaper to invest in disaster risk management than to wait until disasters occur and then attempt recovery.” He expressed appreciation to UNDP for the technical and financial assistance provided through its insurance and risk financing facility and affirmed NADMO’s dedication to working with partners to operationalise the strategy for better disaster management and climate response.