FONDEN (Natural Disasters Fund), Mexico's fund for natural disasters, was established in the late 1990s as a mechanism to support the rapid rehabilitation of federal and state infrastructure affected by adverse natural events. FONDEN was first created as a budget line in the Federal expenditure budget of 1996, and became operational in 1999. Funds from FONDEN could be used for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of: 1) public infrastructure at the three levels of government (federal, state, and municipal)
2) low-income housing
and 3) certain components of the natural environment. FONDEN consists of two complementary budget accounts, the FONDEN program for reconstruction and FOPREDEN program for prevention, and their respective financial accounts. The FONDEN program for reconstruction is FONDEN's primary budget account. It channels resources from the federal expenditure budget to specific reconstruction programs. The FOPREDEN program for prevention supports disaster prevention by funding activities related to risk assessment, risk reduction, and capacity building on disaster prevention. The FONDEN system is continuously evolving to integrate lessons learned over the course of years of experience.