GENEVA?Parliamentarians adopted Friday the Philippine proposal for debt swaps as a creative solution to raise funds for programs aimed at reducing risks associated with disasters around the world.
The parliamentarians, who are attending the Second Session of the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, seconded and unanimously adopted the motion of Sen. Loren Legarda to adopt ?debt-for-disaster risk reduction investments.?
?It?s being done for environment where debts of developing nations are swapped for reforestation projects. The same concept can be done for DRR (disaster risk reduction) investments,? she said in an interview.
Through a debt swap, the creditor country cancels a portion of debt.
In return, the debtor country invests the canceled amount in development projects according to conditions previously agreed by both parties.
Championed by the Philippines in the United Nations? system, debt swaps have surfaced on the agenda of some donor or lending countries as a novel way to finance the UN Millennium Development goals.
Philippine external debt stood at $53.8 billion as of end-December 2008.
The country is projected to incur a deficit of P150 to P250 billion this year, further necessitating foreign borrowings to fund the massive infrastructure projects of the Arroyo administration.
Legarda was thrust into the center stage of global strategy to combat the risks associated with the planet?s warming temperature since she became the United Nation?s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) champion for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in the Asia Pacific region.
Some of the projects that can be funded to lessen risks during disasters are the building of safe hospitals and schools, planting mangroves in coastal areas, cleaning up rivers in blighted urban areas and retrofitting unsafe public infrastructures as a protection against imminent earthquake, said the senator.
The Legarda proposal was commended by no less than UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes who considered it ?a noble idea? along with the proposal to use 30 percent of the UN climate adaptation funds for DRR.
Presently, 45 percent of the Philippine annual budget goes to debt service.
Legarda said that a small part of it could be renegotiated with donor countries and institutions that she believed ?have a moral responsibility to help developing nations insofar as reducing DRR and adopting to climate change.?
She said industrialized nations had contributed to global pollution.
?It?s a new concept adopted at the UN Global Platform on DRR. This is the easiest because no new funds, financing or resources, are needed. This is a creative way of paying for debt and it?s a creative collaboration between the developed and poor developing nations. In this effort, nobody loses, humanity wins,? she said.
During the parliamentarians? forum, the lawmakers also adopted the Manila Declaration on Climate Change issued by delegates from Asia, Europe, Africa and South America on Oct. 18, 2008, which called on rich nations to create a global fund to help reduce disaster risks brought by rising sea temperatures.
