Financing Natural Disaster Risk Using Charity Contributions And Ex Ante Index Insurance

The scale of loss from natural disasters in low-income countries often exceeds the resources of internal and external sources of relief funding. Catastrophe bonds offer the opportunity to transfer the risk of low-probability, high-loss events to the capital market where there is greater capacity to absorb disaster losses. This paper details some problems inherent in traditional sources of disaster relief and proposes an alternative mechanism for catastrophe risk transfer that unites financial innovations and donor communities.