Pacific Island countries will have better access to catastrophe insurance to reduce financial impacts in the aftermath of natural disasters, including major cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis, as a result of a new regional disaster risk finance project in Fiji, a World Bank's press release reports. 

The US$29.73 million project - PCRAFI: Furthering Disaster Risk Finance in the Pacific - builds on eight years of regional collaboration through the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Insurance Initiative (PCRAFI), and shared experiences from similar catastrophe risk pools supported by the World Bank in Africa and the Caribbean.