World Bank partners with First Resilient Kerala Program

June 29, 2019

The Government of India, Government of Kerala and World Bank recently signed a Loan Agreement of $250 Million for First Resilient Kerala Program which seeks to enhance State’s resilience against impacts of natural disasters and climate change.

Background

The 2018 floods and landslides in Kerala wreaked havoc on property, infrastructure, and lives and livelihoods of people in state. 16% of State’s population about 5.4 Million people were affected while 1.4 million were displaced from their homes, especially poor and vulnerable segments of population.

Since the floods struck the state in August 2018 World Bank has been working closely with Centre Government and Kerala in assessing impact of floods as well as assisting in recovery and reconstruction. Bank support also helped in identifying policies, institutions and systems for resilience to disaster risks and climate change.

First Resilient Kerala Program

This New Program is part of Central government’s support to Kerala’s ‘Rebuild Kerala Development Programme’ which aimed at building a Green and Resilient Kerala.

Program will support Kerala with:

Improved River Basin planning, Water Infrastructure Operations Management, Water supply and Sanitation services.
Resilient and sustainable agriculture as well as enhanced agriculture risk insurance.
Improved resilience of core road network
Unified and more updated land records in high risk areas
Risk-based urban planning and strengthened expenditure planning by urban local bodies (ULBs)
Strengthened fiscal and public financial management capacity of state

Approach: It will focus on strengthening Kerala government’s institutional and financial capacity to protect assets and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable groups with help of an inclusive and participatory approach.

Partnership: between Centre government, State government and WB will identify key areas of policy and institutional strengthening to maximize development impact.

World Bank Support: The Program, represents First ‘State Partnership’ of World Bank in India, is the 1st of two Development Policy Operations which aims to mainstream disaster and climate resilience into critical infrastructure and services.

As per the World Bank, State partnership is a key pillar of WB’s new Country Partnership Framework for India and through such partnerships, Bank will support select States striving to bring about systemic improvements in way development initiatives are planned and executed.

Significance: World Bank’s support by this program will not only bring about additional financial resources but also help in leveraging other development partners and connect Kerala to lessons from global good practices.