Colombia: Policy Strategy for Public Financial Management of Natural Disaster Risk

Disasters resulting from natural hazards represent an important challenge for Colombia’s fiscal sustainability and stability. Colombia is one of the countries with the highest recurrence rate of disasters caused by natural hazards in Latin America. As the country’s population and economy continue to grow, so will the economic losses resulting from such events, an average of 600 disaster events are reported each year. Colombia’s rate of economic growth is increasing the base of assets exposed to disaster risks, which may lead to significant increases in losses, particularly if investments in new assets are not accompanied by plans for mitigating disaster risk. This document presents the priority policy objectives that have been established to assess, reduce, and manage fiscal risk due to natural disasters. It also describes the MHCP’s efforts to progress its policy objectives in the long term. These policy objectives represent the MHCP’s ex-ante policy framework regarding management of financial and fiscal disaster risk.