The Committee on Development Effectiveness met to consider the Independent Evaluation Group evaluation Reducing Disaster Risks from Natural Hazards: An Evaluation of the World Bank’s Support, Fiscal Years 2010–20 and the draft World Bank management response.

The committee welcomed the evaluation and commended the Independent Evaluation Group and World Bank management for their collaborative engagement. Members appreciated the participation of the global director of the Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience, and Land Global Practice and the Fragility, Conflict, and Violence Group director in the discussion, next to Operations Policy and Country Services. They were pleased to learn that management was in broad agreement with the evaluation’s overall findings and recommendations. They applauded the disaster risk reduction (DRR) portfolio growth both in terms of financing volumes and mainstreaming within client portfolios. Members underscored the importance of the World Bank’s analytical and convening role to drive DRR and climate resilience progress toward sustainable development. To this end, they also called for greater collaboration among the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency as well as continued coordination with other development partners. Members urged management to improve DRR outcome indicators in operations and to work with task teams to incorporate them more consistently.

Members welcomed management’s ongoing efforts to address coverage gap issues in the Middle East and North Africa and Europe and Central Asia Regions, and in the agriculture and energy sectors, some of which include work on risk assessments using innovative approaches and remote sensing technology. Although some members raised concerns about the decline in the number of projects supporting disaster response without a DRR element (30 percent in FY10 to 0 percent in FY20), they were reassured by the Independent Evaluation Group’s explanation that the World Bank included a focus on DRR in all instances when it provided disaster response support in line with corporate goals of moving DRR elements upstream. To address coverage gaps, management was encouraged to apply not only a demand-driven approach to DRR operations but also a supply-driven approach to better incorporate DRR activities in Regions and sectors with coverage gaps.