Micro-Finance and Disaster Risk Reduction : Proceedings of International Workshop on Disaster Risk Mitigation: Potential of Micro-Finance for Tsunami Recovery, New Delhi October 14-15, 2005 Book

Contents: 1. Introduction/P.G. Dhar Chakrabarti. 2. Summary of workshop proceedings/Mihir Bhat. 3. Financial services for disaster risk management for the poor/Daniel Kull. 4. Micro-insurance: making insurance work for the poor/Dirk Reinhard. 5. Micro-Finance for Tsunami recovery: experience of NABARD/Sukhbir Singh. 6. Rashtrya Mahila Kosh as apex service provider/Sneh Lata Kumar. 7. Why Sanghamithra is different/Aloysius P. Fernandez. 8. Kalanjiam model of DHAN foundation/J. Saravanan. 9. Swayam programme in Andaman and Nicobar Islands/Manu Gupta and Guillaume Mellot. 10. SEWA Jeevika experience/Reema Nanavaty and Trushna Patel. 11. Making micro-finance work for the victims of the Tsunami/R. Devaprakash. 12. Micro-finance services for disaster risk management: case study of Bangladesh floods, 1998/Krishna S. Vatsa. 13. Experience from Philippines/Maria Concepcion Hina-Antonio. 14. Transferring risk through micro-insurance: a case study of GSDMA/G.J. Pandya and Mehul Pandya. 15. Invest to prevent disaster: potential benefits and limitations of micro-insurance as a risk transfer mechanism for developing countries/Reinhard Mechler and Joanne Linnerooth-Bayer.

"Substantial evidence is available from across the globe that micro-finance products and services have the potential to empower the poor, particularly the poor women in the rural areas, in acquiring skill, confidence and capacity to undertake activities that can significantly lift them above the poverty line.

There is also evidence that micro-credit groups of the poor have done better in coping with natural disaster although disasters like the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004 badly crippled their activities.

In the immediate post-disaster phase when relief and rehabilitation assistance pours in, micro-finance plays a marginal role, but when the supply of dole dries up, the poor have to fend for themselves. In this critical phase of recovery, micro-finance assumes even greater importance in supplementing other efforts for livelihood restoration and sustainable development.

This volume, which draws from the contributions in an international workshop in Delhi during 2005, would be an important addition to the very limited literature available on the subject." (jacket)