Due to recent extreme weather events in the Pacific Islands, the World Bank, Japan and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community have come together to devise a two-year pilot to see whether catastrophe insurance might work such islands as Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Marshall Islands. Known as the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Pilot, it aims to reduce the vulnerability of Pacific Island States to natural disasters by improving their financial response to such events. According to Japan’s Ministry of Finance, the  program “offers immediate emergency funding in the aftermath of a major disaster and will help stabilize Pacific Island economies so their efforts to respond to an emergency situation can be maximized.”