The ‘Ask The Expert’ series features leading specialists who work at the Commonwealth Secretariat in specialised areas. In this fourth edition, Travis Mitchell, Head of Economic Policy and Small States, talks about the priority areas that will be discussed at this year’s Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting.
This year’s Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting will focus on ‘Enhancing National Capacity to Reduce Disaster Risk’. What challenges do Commonwealth countries face in terms of disaster risk management?
The first challenge for countries is securing funding for development, as countries have limited fiscal space to begin with. When struck by a natural disaster, they have to clean up its aftermath in addition to financing reconstruction. They also lack the necessary human resource and institutional capacity to absorb available financing, which limits their ability to respond effectively to natural disasters.
There is also an issue of size, by the virtue of their small landmass. In bigger countries, when a disaster hits, you can move a population from one part of the country to the next. Recently, as we saw in Barbuda, the entire country was decimated and pretty much all of its citizens had to be relocated to the Antigua mainland.
What would be the expected outcomes of the forthcoming Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting (CFMM)?
We expect that finance ministers will give the Secretariat some steer as to the appropriate instruments we should implement to help them tackle disasters. We will showcase a number of instruments at the meeting, including a disaster finance portal. The portal seeks to defragment the disaster financing landscape by helping member countries navigate the breadth of disaster financial instruments, and in identifying appropriate solutions to reduce their disaster risk.
We also hope to gain support for planned partnerships, for example, we are in the midst of a collaboration with DFID (UK), the Overseas Development Institute, World Bank and others to deliver programmes including disaster risk training for government officials, which will allow them to better deal with disaster risks.
Additionally, we look forward to developing a working group where we could continue to speak on how the Secretariat and the international community could better assist member countries in dealing with risks associated with natural disasters.
At CHOGM, leaders agreed for a consensus on the use of vulnerability measures to target appropriate support for member countries that are most affected by natural disasters, why is it important to have a universal understanding of vulnerability?
The destruction witnessed in the aftermath of recent category five storms in the Caribbean and the Pacific in 2017 has shone the spotlight on vulnerability. We believe that if there is a universal understanding of vulnerability, the international development banks and financial institutions will be better equipped to address country-specific challenges. Building a consensus on vulnerability will help develop better policies and instruments that could assist countries to recover quicker and for civilians to return to their normal lives post-disaster.
High-level development finance has been made available for countries but some countries, especially small states, cannot absorb it. How can the Commonwealth Secretariat help them in this area?
Absorption capacity is a significant issue. While there is a call for greater access for funding, a core challenge is that countries cannot easily access these available funds due to their limited human resource and institutional constraints. In small developing countries, for example, one to two staff members are tasked with managing the development contracts with 10-12 institutions. This is not sustainable.
Through the Climate Finance Access Hub, we have mobilised Advisors to help member countries prepare and implement climate finance projects. We are now working with partners to consider if these Advisors could also help member countries to build the capacity within their governments to draw down on multilateral commitments for disaster risk reduction, in addition to that committed for climate change adaptation and mitigation.