Santo Domingo, (EFE).- The Ibero-American Development Bank (IDB) allocated aid of 40 million dollars to Central America and the Dominican Republic after the hurricanestropical storms and rains in recent months, the institution reported on Wednesday.
In a statement, the IDB explained that this immediate aid includes emergency donations to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, the activation of contingent loans in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and the redirection of portfolio resources in Honduras. .
These resources will be used to provide humanitarian aid to those affected by the passage of hurricanes Julia, Fiona and Lisa, the tropical storms and rains in recent months, which caused human losses and extensive destruction, as well as to assess damage, identify areas of risk and rehabilitate infrastructures.
Given the region’s exposure to natural disasters and to cushion their impact on the countries’ public finances and their progress in reducing poverty and inequality, in recent years the IDB has approved six contingent loans for emergencies in the face of those situations and public health crises in Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic, which can be activated in an emergency, the note added.
In addition, the IDB promotes a strategic agenda to strengthen the resilience of the countries of the region in the face of these situations based on the four pillars of the Sendai agreement on disaster risk reduction: understanding that risk, strengthening its governance, invest in risk reduction for resilience and increase preparedness for such cases to provide an effective response.
“As part of these actions -he specified- initiatives have been developed for the management of water resources, the sustainable management of coastal areas, the increase in the resilience of agroforestry activities, as well as social and productive infrastructure”, among others.
