The Gambia is one of the smallest countries in Africa, and one of the most exposed to climate change. Its capital, Banjul, sits on an island less than a metre above sea level. By the end of the century, the city could be lost altogether. Amid regular floods and severe droughts, poverty is rising and tens of thousands of young people are leaving the country for opportunities elsewhere. How does a country on the climate frontline build a future its young people want? In this episode of Counter ...
30 Jun 2026
S3 Ep 2: Black Rain
In January 2022, an underwater volcano erupted off Tonga with enough force to be heard in Alaska. It triggered a tsunami, severed the undersea cable that connected the country to the world, and caught the national disaster team's own boat at sea for five days. Tonga had insurance — but the small print didn't cover volcanic eruptions. Aid arrived, but reaching the most remote islands took weeks. How do you insure against a once-in-a-thousand-years disaster — and what happens when the policy do...
30 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT
S3 Ep 1: Hurricane People
In October 2025, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as the strongest storm ever to hit the island. Forty-five people were killed, thousands were left homeless, and the town of Black River was almost completely destroyed. But Jamaica had spent years preparing. After a catastrophe bond failed to trigger during Hurricane Beryl the year before, critics asked whether Jamaica had bought the wrong insurance. This time, the bond paid out $150 million, and the country mobilised over $660 milli...
30 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT
S3 Ep 4: The Quiet Disaster
Heat doesn't behave like other disasters. It's slow, continuous, and chronically under-recorded. In parts of India, heat now lasts for up to nine months of the year. For street vendors, construction workers and informal-sector women, heat means impossible choices between earning and staying safe. One response has been a parametric heat insurance policy, now covering a quarter of a million women workers, that pays out automatically when temperatures cross a threshold for two days in a row. The...
30 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT
Season 3 Trailer
The people closest to a disaster are often the furthest away from where decisions about the money to respond are made. The third season of Counter Crisis travels that distance and meets people who are working to close it. Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Counter Crisis is brought to you by the Centre for Disaster Protection, which helps countries find better ways to manage disaster risk – protecting lives, livelihoods, and economies before crisis strikes. Follow us on Link...
28 Apr 2025
S2 Ep 3: A brighter future for global disaster response?
Hurricane Beryl left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean – homes torn apart, power lines downed, entire communities devastated. But this time, something was different. Just eight days after landfall, a record $55.5 million in prearranged insurance payouts was triggered, delivering emergency funds when they were needed most. Could this be the future of disaster response? In this episode of Counter Crisis, Jeevan Vasagar speaks to Elizabeth Riley and Colin Bruce about why pr...
21 Apr 2025
S2 Ep 2: Breaking the cycle of response and recovery
In 2016, Cyclone Winston devastated Fiji – flattening villages, cutting power, and leaving hundreds of thousands in urgent need. But as the crisis unfolded, aid stalled. Bureaucracy delayed funding, costing time and lives. Nine years later, the system remains broken. Disaster response is fragmented, and vulnerable nations are left waiting. With foreign aid shrinking and the next crisis inevitable, how can we fix it before it’s too late? In this episode, Tortoise editor Jeevan Vasa...
14 Apr 2025
S2 Ep 1: If we know it’s coming, why do we wait?
Wildfires, floods, drought – climate disasters are hitting harder and faster. The response is often too late, leaving millions to suffer. In fact, less than 2% of international crisis financing is arranged in advance —and an even smaller portion reaches the world’s poorest communities. What if we could act before catastrophe struck? In this episode of Counter Crisis, we uncover how pre-arranged financing – committing funding and preparing response plans in advance – can help in pl...
14 Apr 2025
Season 2 Trailer
Counter Crisis is brought to you by the Centre for Disaster Protection, which helps countries find better ways to manage disaster risk – protecting lives, livelihoods, and economies before crisis strikes. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.
2 Apr 2024
Counter Crisis Episode 3: Are we ready for the next pandemic?
Finance is crucial for containing the spread of the new disease while not leaving countries to raid their national budgets and accumulate unsustainable debt burdens. But we don't need just more money; we need systems that ensure money is timely and reaches the frontline. In Episode 3 of the Centre for Disaster Protection’s podcast, we discuss why the race against the next pandemic has already started.
27 Mar 2024
Counter Crisis Episode 2: Can finance save climate-vulnerable countries from drowning?
In Episode II of the Centre for Disaster Protection’s podcast, Counter Crisis, the Centre’s Research Lead and development finance expert, Shakira Mustapha (https://www.disasterprotection.org/shakira-mustapha), is joined by Michai Robertson (https://odi.org/en/profile/michai-robertson/), a Research Fellow in climate and sustainability at the global affairs think tank ODI, to discuss the latest break-throughs in the global financing architecture dealing with the climate change: the Loss and Damage Fund and the Global Shield Against Climate Risk. They also explain how prearranged financing has featured in these, and previous efforts, and why it has sometimes been met with controversy.
19 Mar 2024
Counter Crisis Episode 1: The State of Pre-Arranged Financing
While few would disagree on the importance of having plans in place before a crisis happens, why is there so little pre-arranged crisis financing, and why does a significant portion go to nations already better-equipped to handle disasters?
What needs to change to ensure the most vulnerable communities receive the protection they need?
Episode one features the Centre for Disaster Protection's Associate Director, Evidence, Lydia Poole (https://www.disasterprotection.org/lydia-poole), along with guest Ekhosuehi Iyahen (https://www.insdevforum.org/governance-membership/members/ekhosuehi-iyahen/), Secretary General of the Insurance Development Forum, shedding light on the blind spots of our current approaches to disasters, and how pre-arranged financing can help the most vulnerable people in the long term.
Inside a recent episode
S3 Ep 3: Between Flood and Drought
Published 30 Jun 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] The poverty rates has increased slightly from 48% to 53%, largely due to COVID-19 and some other global economic shocks that the country also suffered. In 2022, the Gambia suffered some of the heaviest rainfall in decades. Tens of thousands of households were flooded. At least two people died. In 2025, it happened again. We are highly exposed to climate shocks, especially a flood and drought condition. When crops fail or floods hit, families have very little to fall back on. Migration is quietly hollowing out communities. Sambujang Dunfer's son-in-law left the country because he couldn't make ends meet, even though he had a job as a police officer. […]
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