Socio-Economic Impact of Disasters in the Philippines: The First Two Decades of the 21st Century

Abstract

The Philippines, an archipelago of over 7,000 islands with a population of 105 million, is one of the most at-risk countries in the world, with a frequent exposure to climate-related and geophysical hazards. One of the targets set out in United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) involves supporting the most vulnerable regions to adapt to climate change by integrating disaster risk reduction measures into national policies and strategies. This chapter characterizes the patterns in the occurrence of disasters, associated deaths, population affected, and economic damages in the Philippines over the period 2000–2019. Although the literature states that the government of the Philippines invests significant resources to reduce population exposure to hazards, climate-related hazards must be viewed more carefully, since the global trends indicate an increase in their frequency and intensity. Policies focused on disaster risk management and resilience can facilitate access of the poorest in the population to the mechanisms of economic risk transfer through universal insurance.