Effect of pre-disaster public finance on disaster mitigation in Eastern and Southern Africa
Date
2020-11
Authors
Kudzanayi, Christian Maguchu
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Sub-Saharan Africa has seen an increase in the frequency, intensity and cost of natural disasters. The associated effects suggest that governments are lagging on their disaster mitigation financing obligations, since countries investing significantly in this should be able to minimize the impact of natural disasters. In consideration, the objective of the study was to assess whether the relationship between the occurrence of disasters and the resulting disaster related losses (total deaths and total people affected), is affected by the level and type of pre-disaster finance (dedicated and embedded budget allocations, contingent credit lines, insurance and reinsurance, and catastrophic bonds). The study adopted a positivism research philosophy, followed a quantitative descriptive research design using panel data analysis and utilized secondary data on six countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. Findings indicate that embedded budget allocations weaken the causal relationship between disaster occurrence and disaster losses thereby improving disaster mitigation as shown by the reduction in the total deaths and number of people affected by hazards. On the contrary, dedicated budget allocations, insurance and reinsurance and contingent credit lines did not show any significant interaction with disaster occurrence and therefore no effect on the minimization of total deaths and number of people affected. The study recommends the increased use of embedded budget allocations for effective disaster mitigation.
Description
A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for Degree of Master of Science in Development Finance at Strathmore Business School
Keywords
Disasters, Disaster Mitigation, Disaster Risk Reduction