World Bank global crisis response platform

The world faces major threats that undermine developing and developed countries alike – three of the most pressing ones are climate change and related natural disasters; fragility and conflict which, along with climate change, have resulted in the massive displacement of people; and the threat of a future pandemic. Such crises are occurring with increasing frequency, intensity and duration, wiping away decades of hard-earned economic and social gains.

x Direct financial losses from natural disasters reached an average of US$165 billion per year during the last decade. And the risks posed by climate change continue to escalate. Recent data indicate that climate change may push 100+ million people into poverty in the next 15 years, with enormous costs.

x The aggregate economic cost of conflict and violence on the global economy was estimated at US$14.3 trillion in 2014, or 13.4 percent of world GDP.1

x A record 65.3 million people today are displaced worldwide compared with 40 million at the end of the Second World War; the majority of the world’s forced migrants are internally displaced within Africa and the Middle East.