required investments to support their implementation. Financial resources were limited, especially among local governments. However, technical assistance grants increasingly became available from the international community to underwrite governments’ risk-sensitive land use planning.
Thematic and Sectoral Opportunities for Investing in Resilience 101
Such planning encompassed many sectors and affected natural resource exploitation, enabling the government to tap funding and investment instruments from a wide range of sources.
Independent of the source of funding, risk-sensitive land use planning provided tangible financial returns to government, private investors, communities, and individuals. Redevelopment focused on risk reduction increased the economic and social potential of at-risk settlements and transformed informal settlements and slums into viable neighborhoods with enabled infrastructure that attracted private investment (von Einsiedel et al. 2010). The government stimulated investment in transport, water, sanitation, and DRR. The private sector—developers, private individuals, and service providers—found viable investment opportunities for developing housing, utilities, and services. Communities participated by engaging in housing and livelihood preparedness and risk reduction (Box 13).
Government concentration of much of its infrastructure investment in less hazard-prone areas also helped direct private sector, commu- nity, and household investments toward these areas. In some cases, a property tax surcharge was placed on less vulnerable land where public infrastructure investments had taken place, and a portion of this revenue stream was put back into public infrastructure risk reduction mea- sures in areas where the government wanted to direct growth. Other benefits captured from
investing in less hazard-prone areas came from more attractive infrastructure financing and lower insurance costs.
The government optimized private invest- ments through various debt instruments, including municipal infrastructure bonds. To further encourage private investment, the government used instruments such as build– operate–transfer, build–operate–own, and private sector participation projects for road transport, water, and sanitation infrastructure. The location of businesses and homes in less vulnerable areas permitted continued access to credit as loan approvals became in part dependent on the level of disaster risks faced. In addition, areas with less vulnerable public infrastructure were monitored and evaluated for private sector–induced increases in risk, which triggered offsetting surcharges to cover financing of increased contingent liabilities, thus making visible the benefits of private and public investments in resilience.
The government used legal and planning instruments to improve private and individual investment and to improve access to land and property for the lower- and middle-income populations. Eminent domain laws, purchase development rights, and buyouts enabled governments to acquire land for the purpose of development and/or conservation of risk- prone areas. Land use planning instruments included land pooling, land consolidation, and other land management techniques that enabled a more efficient approach to land use and an opportunity for investing in resilience.
Box 13 Risk-Sensitive Redevelopment Planning for Barangay Rizal
The Risk-Sensitive Urban Redevelopment Plan of Barangay Rizal in Makati City, Philippines, demonstrates how a long-term plan can be developed to guide future development with the ultimate goal of reducing exposure to hazards. Barangay Rizal is a low-income neighborhood that sits on an active earthquake fault and is subject to frequent flooding. The goal is to transform this high-risk community into a safer, disaster-resilient neighborhood while simultaneously enhancing its urban fabric, economic vibrancy, social cohesion, public safety, and environmental quality. The challenge is to work with the stakeholders to develop options to reduce these risks and to have these options understood, accepted, and supported on the basis of compromise. The redevelopment plan is designed for a 10-year period with short-term, medium-term, and long-term actions. The priorities in the action planning were driven by input from the stakeholders and were chosen based on their ability to secure community acceptance while also developing the conditions to stimulate public expenditure and attract private investment.
Transport networks, including land, sea, and air travel networks, enable the economic development of a society. As is true of any sector, road transport infrastructure is delivered through a combination of policies, planning, and implementation initiatives. Countries usually develop transport policies and related tools that are put into practice and financed through a variety of instruments and mechanisms, such as regulations and guidelines, detailed operational plans, projects, special purpose vehicles, program support, budget support, private sector investment, or foreign direct investment. The term project in the context of transport is used here to refer to any action that aims to improve transport services, such as stronger policy formulation, increased capacity, the construction and rehabilitation of roads, maintenance, and so forth. In reality, many projects comprise a combination of policy development, capacity development, and physical works.
Most countries have crosscutting poli- cies and regulations in place that must also be considered when implementing sector
policies. These policies and regulations cover issues such as DRM, climate change, gender equality, poverty eradication, environmental safeguards, and anticorruption protection. However, these are not always adhered to.
National policies, planning, and implementation guide equivalent processes sub nationally and locally, where the national road network is present and connects to other jurisdictions’ networks. Acting on strengthened resilience requires simultaneous improvements of policy, planning, and implementation across all levels of a road network.