Various financial instruments have evolved for this purpose, including catastrophe bonds.
Last year AXA, a French insurer, issued so-called mortality catastrophe bonds to protect itself in the event of large death tolls caused by, say, avian flu or terrorism.
Some recent innovations, such as tradable pollution rights and catastrophe bonds, have provided a public benefit.
But Francis Ghesquiere of the World Bank doubts that a country as poor as Haiti, with no experience on international bond markets, will start issuing catastrophe bonds.