Publications

As climate shocks grow more frequent and severe, disasters are no longer rare shocks but recurring fiscal stress tests for governments—disrupting livelihoods, damaging economies, and rolling back hard-won development gains. Financial preparedness is essential to ensure fast, predictable funding when crises hit.

More than 4.2 million people—almost 2.3 million women—were directly protected from disasters through the Global Shield Financing Facility (GSFF) in FY25. Working through World Bank operations, GSFF grants have financed engagements across the globe to design, pilot, and scale solutions aligned with national priorities. Seventeen countries have active disaster risk finance (DRF) solutions, and in 2025 alone, US$31 million in payouts were mobilized for seven countries post-disasters.

Beyond country operations, GSFF continued to strengthen partnerships and global engagement, including new linkages between disaster risk finance and adaptive social protection systems to better reach vulnerable populations, as well as engagement with development partners and the private sector to advance sustainable risk financing approaches.

Download the Global Shield Financing Facility Annual Report 2025 to read about key achievements from the year.

Related document:

UNICEF Today & Tomorrow Initiative – Year 2 Integrated Report (2024): The report outlines how UNICEF combines risk reduction and pre-arranged financing to help governments better protect children from climate and disaster shocks. It highlights progress across pilot countries, including strengthened preparedness systems and the use of parametric insurance to enable faster, child-focused response, with the work funded by GSFF.