The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a US$100 million loan to strengthen Panama's capacity to prepare for, and deal with natural disasters as welll as to promote the consideration of adaptation to climate change within land management decisions.
6 October 2011: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will finance Panama’s development of a policy for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation with a US$100 million loan.
The loan will help implement a programme to facilitate policy coordination among a variety of government agencies so that they can respond more quickly and more efficiently to natural disasters. The programme will be built on two pillars. The first pillar will push for a series of policy commitments in governance and financial management so that relevant policies are implemented and budgetary provisions made for future disasters. The second pillar will improve Panama’s capability for risk identification, risk reduction and disaster management, through information exchange among stakeholders and improving capacity of land management authorities to consider climate change vulnerability within land management decisions. In addition, Panama’s disaster response will be strengthened with training and updates of emergency-response protocols.
The loan is for 20 years, has a 2.5-year grace period, and an interest rate based on LIBOR. [IDB Press Release]