Financing the unpredictable: what role could sovereign catastrophe bonds play in disaster risk management?

Flooding in the Philippines after Typhoon Goni in 2020. Photo: Judgefloro, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
This report from the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise (CETEx) aims to enhance understanding of sovereign catastrophe bonds, a type of insurance-linked security, as a tool in comprehensive disaster risk reduction. Traditional disaster risk finance tools, such as insurance and reserve funds, remain important, but catastrophe bonds are gaining attention as a specialised option. Interest in their use is particularly strong in developing countries, where multilateral development banks are expanding support for catastrophe bonds.