Global Disaster Insurance

Radar image of the ground changes due to the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

Rather than the patchwork of often ad hoc disaster assistance systems we have now, really all nations should be part of a global disaster insurance plan. This would provide is certainty as to what degree of response would be mounted so that planning can be done and in theory lead time could be reduced. It would force not only a systematic evaluation of all the risk factors each nation faces but also provide economic incentive to take preventative steps to lessen them. Too often a disaster occurs and obvious, generally inexpensive (relative to the costs of the damage itself) preventive measures come to light. It bears mentioning that a large part of any risk assessment would include the impact of corruption on general preparedness, again providing incentive for solutions to be found before such systems are needed. It is tempting to think this would be useful to only less developed nations, but many other faults, such as Boston's earthquake deficient buildings, could benefit from a sober assessment of the risks and the price of potential remedies, especially placed in a global context.

Note that there is nothing about this proposal that would lessen the opportunity for charitable foreign assistance. In fact, by better highlighting the problem areas and encouraging more efficient mitigation efforts it should vastly improve it.