The World Bank's Changing Conditionality for Flood Risk Management: Analysis Over Six Decades

Abstract

The World Bank is a leading global institution for disaster risk management, the bulk of which is dedicated to flood risk management (FRM). Due to the Bank's power as a lending agency and the global distribution of flood risks it has addressed, the Bank's project financial agreements (FAs) are an expression of a power relationship worthy of detailed investigation. These FAs present an opportunity in which the Bank could impose its policy preferences and set the parameters for FRM in recipient countries, thus illuminating both an important driver for change and the Bank's fundamental modus vivendi. This paper uses qualitative content analysis to investigate 52 FAs from 1975 to 2023, searching for patterns in the FRM measures they emphasise. We examine how FRM measures advocated by the Bank have changed over time, finding that the Bank has used its power to promote early adoption of integrated structural and non-structural FRM strategies in a mutually reinforcing complementary arrangement. The Bank advanced integrated FRM approaches well before other international bodies and national agencies and thus features as a world leader in this respect. We also find that common criticisms of neoliberalism and gender equality against the Bank are not entirely unfounded, but progress has occurred in these directions in recent years.