PCRAFI Country Note Cook Islands

The Cook Islands is composed of 15 islands,
spread across nearly 2 million km2 of
territorial waters. The geographic spread of the
Cook Islands poses logistical problems for any
necessary post-disaster relief and response efforts.
The 2011 census estimated the resident population
of the Cook Islands at approximately 14,974
people, with a further 2,820 temporary residents.
Approximately three-quarters of the population
lived in Rarotonga. The geographic spread of
the population makes initial disaster response to
the outer islands expensive and further burdens
already-constrained public finances.

The events of 2005 demonstrated that the
Cook Islands is extremely vulnerable to the
threat of tropical cyclones (TCs): in the two
months of February and March 2005, TCs Meena,
Nancy, Olaf, Percy, and Rae swept the country.
Four of these cyclones reached the maximum
category 5 rating and caused severe damage to
infrastructure and agriculture (Cyclone Recovery
Committee 2006). A number of options for further improving
the Cook Islands’ financial protection against
disasters are presented for consideration:

(a) The development of an integrated DRFI
strategy;

(b) Investigation of using contingent credit to
access additional liquidity post-disaster;

(c) Development of an operations manual
for post-disaster budget mobilization and
execution; and

(d) The identification of assets to be included in
an insurance program for critical public assets.