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United Nations, IFC, African Risk Capacity, and AAISA Work Towards Creating Disaster Risk Insurance Markets in Africa

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Dakar, Senegal, June 24, 2019— A consortium of international development agencies including the United Nations African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), the African Risk Capacity (ARC), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Association of African Insurance Supervisors (AAISA), today opened a two-week training event on index and disaster risk insurance.

The training will help build the knowledge of African governments, the private sector, and the international community to better carry out financial planning necessary to protect vulnerable populations against climate shocks, disasters, and other crises.

Index and disaster risk insurance products help protect agribusinesses, farmers, and other low-income populations against environmental risks such as drought, floods, irregular rainfall, natural disasters and other effects of climate change. Access to these types of affordable insurance products will help the affected population mitigate the effects of these climate-related shocks, protecting them against catastrophic losses and unlocking access to finance.

The training workshops – offered in English the first week: from June 24 – 29; and in French the second week: June 30 – July 6, 2019 – will allow participants to discuss ways of exploiting their relative strengths to successfully implement these innovative types of insurance in their countries.

In his remarks, UN-ASG and Director-General, ARC, Mohamed Beavogui said, “Capacity building is key to our efforts in working with Member States. ARC and its partners work with Member States to provide development insurance instruments by determining risk profiles, customization of its tools, and development of a contingency plan that fits into a country’s broader risk management framework. This helps to strengthen resilience and protect development gains from being wiped away by weather-related risks.

Faheen Allibhoy, IFC Country Manager for Senegal, said: “The World Bank Group is committed to working with the African Union and UNECA to create new, sustainable agricultural and disaster risk insurance markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. Working together, we can achieve greater combined results that contribute to the development goals of all three institutions.”

One of the sponsors of the training, the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), is UNECA’s training institute. It is responsible for providing capacity development and training programs aimed at improving public sector management and development planning in support of member States’ structural transformation. Also, it contributes towards strengthening the capacity of member States to develop and adopt better approaches to development planning, economic policy formulation, management, monitoring and evaluation.

The training workshop in Dakar is the first of a series of activities that will be run jointly by the three institutions. Participants include representatives of ministries of agriculture and finance, insurance regulators, the media, as well as insurance companies offering (or planning to offer) index and disaster risk insurance in Sub-Saharan Africa, from Chad, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritania, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

About the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa:

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) is the premier knowledge institution in Africa. It was established by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN) with the mandate to promote inclusive and sustainable development in support of accelerating the economic diversification and structural transformation of Africa, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. UNECA supports member states in developing and transforming key growth sectors by focusing on youth and job creation, digitalization, diversification, industrialization, urbanization, transformation, trade, gender, connectivity, innovation, integration, social protection, skills, illicit financial -flows, data, and peace and security. It also provides powerful convening platforms for advancing African national, sub-regional and regional interests and for delivering actions for an empowered, inclusive and transformed Africa.

About the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning:

The African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), is UNECA’s training institute, responsible for providing capacity development and training programs aimed at improving public sector management and development planning in support of member States’ structural transformation. It contributes towards strengthening the capacity of member States to develop and adopt better approaches to development planning, economic policy formulation, management, monitoring and evaluation. IDEP’s capacity development, advisory and policy dialogue programmes and activities target mid-career and senior officials of African Governments, with special attention given to the next generation of younger professionals and women officials.

About the Global Index Insurance Facility:

The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) is a multi-donor program that was created to address the scarcity of affordable insurance protection against weather and catastrophic risks in developing and emerging countries. Its main objective is to promote the development of effective and sustainable markets for index-based weather and catastrophic risk insurance in such countries. The facility is part of the World Bank Group’s Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice and is funded by: the European Commission/the African,
Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States; the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); and the Japan Ministry of Finance.

The GIIF portfolio covers 10 Sub-Saharan Africa countries, namely Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire,
Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia. GIIF has issued more than 4.4 million contracts for African farmers and micro-entrepreneurs, providing access to finance to approximately 22 million people, with approximately US$545 million generated in financing and inputs.

About IFC

IFC—a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets.
We work with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in the toughest areas of the world. In fiscal year 2018, we delivered more than $23 billion in long-term financing for developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit www.ifc.org Media contacts: IFC: In Johannesburg Pauline Delay Phone: +27 11 731 3048; E-mail: pdelay@ifc.org

Stay Connected: www.facebook.com/IFCwbg; www.twitter.com/IFC_org www.youtube.com/IFCvideocasts; www.ifc.org/SocialMediaIndex; www.instagram.com\ifc_org

About ARC

About African Risk Capacity (ARC): ARC consists of ARC Agency and ARC Insurance Company Limited (ARC Ltd). ARC Agency was established in 2012 as a Specialized Agency of the African Union to help Member States improve their capacities to better plan, prepare and respond to weather-related disasters. ARC Ltd is a mutual insurance facility providing risk transfer services to Member States through risk pooling and access to reinsurance markets; it is owned by Member States with active insurance policies while the KfW Development Bank and the UK Department of International Development are capital contributors.
With the support of the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, France,
The Rockefeller Foundation and the United States, ARC assists AU Member States in reducing the risk of loss and damage caused by extreme weather events affecting Africa’s populations by providing, through sovereign disaster risk insurance, targeted responses to natural disasters in a more timely, cost-effective, objective and transparent manner. ARC is now using its expertise to help tackle some of the other greatest threats faced by the continent, including outbreaks and epidemics.

African Risk Capacity-A Specialized Agency of the African Union ARC Secretariat, No. 1 Eglin Road, Sunninghill 2157, Johannesburg, South Africa Tel: +27 (0)11 517 1535 Fax: +27 (0)11 517 1642 www.africanriskcapacity.org; Twitter: @ARCapacity,

MEDIA CONTACT: Chinedu Moghalu Phone: +27833087068; Email: chinedu.moghalu@africanriskcapacity.org; chinedu.moghalu@wfp.org