Minister for Disaster Management, Sakiasi Ditoka.

Minister for Disaster Management, Sakiasi Ditoka, is stressing that a single financial toolkit is not a panacea for Disaster Risk Finance.

Speaking at the Pacific Region Disaster Risk Finance Workshop, Ditoka says they need to approach this from a risk-layering perspective and identify a promising instrument that syncs with a given level of risk.

He adds that natural disasters pose an existential threat to the Pacific Island Countries.

According to Ditoka, resilience building and adaptation are imperative to deal with this issue.

The Minister says it is critical to holistically assess the mosaic of solutions available and embed them in the national planning and budgetary process.

Ditoka thanked the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company team for designing Tropical Cyclone and Excess Rainfall/Flood parametric insurance policies based on the specifications requested by the Fijian Government.

“I wish to wholeheartedly thank the donor partners, especially the German Government, for the Euro10 million funding specifically for premium support. A poignant point I wish to reiterate is that given fiscal stress which PICs are grappling with – a multi-year disaster risk financing support is essential.”

Ditoka says technical understanding and knowledge of disaster risk financing products are quite limited in the Pacific.