CDB approves grant to pay Haiti’s catastrophe risk insurance premium

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved a grant of US$3.5 million to pay Haiti’s catastrophe risk insurance premium for the coming year.

This marks the fourth year that CDB has provided a grant for the full payment of Haiti’s premiums on earthquake, tropical cyclone and excess rainfall policies.

Given Haiti’s fragility and high vulnerability to natural hazards, the Bank committed to paying its annual Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) premiums, as part of the CDB country partnership strategy for Haiti for the period 2013-2016.

Haiti and other member countries of CCRIF, the world’s first multi-country catastrophe risk pooling facility, benefit from sovereign insurance at affordable rates.

Through CCRIF, countries receive timely, rapid cash payments after catastrophic earthquakes, hurricanes or excess rainfall events, which significantly impact their national economies.

Haiti is still recovering from the impact of the 2010 earthquake, which caused more than 300,000 deaths, displaced over three million people, and made more than one million homeless.