The V20 Secretariat, the InsuResilience Global Partnership (IGP) Secretariat and Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) co-organized a capacity-building workshop for Members of the Vulnerable 20 Group (V20) and Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) on climate and disaster risk management and accessing financial protection programs through IGP partners. 

22 June 2022: Despite efforts by countries, international donors and humanitarian organizations to harmonize the Global Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) architecture, existing projects and available risk financing instruments are not always easy to navigate for low and lower middle income  countries. The workshop co-organized by the InsuResilience Global Partnership Secretariat, the V20 Secretariat and Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) sought to provide more clarity, create awareness and set priorities on how the V20-G20-led InsuResilience Global Partnership (IGP) can support vulnerable countries to choose and implement needs-based  CDRFI solutions,  access  IGP partner programmes and receive  technical and financial support is available. 

After greeting remarks from Mr Foster Giamfy, Ministry of Finance, Ghana V20 Presidency and Ms Isatou Camara, Ministry of Finance and IGP-V20-Co-Chair, who emphasized the importance of affordable and effective CDRFI solutions for vulnerable countries, Astrid Zwick, Head of the IGP Secretariat, introduced  the aims and background of the Partnership. Launched in 2017 as a V20-G20 co-led initiative, IGP brings together more than 110 members from governments, civil society, international organizations, private sector, and academia. IGP’s key objective is to strengthen the resilience of developing countries by enabling faster, more reliable and cost-effective responses to disasters through CDRFI. Currently, there are over 300 InsuResilience country projects active in over 100 countries around the world.

The first part of the workshop was dedicated to understanding the theoretical foundations of comprehensive risk management with Inputs by Sönke Kreft (MCII), Daniel Stadtmüller (IGP Secretariat) and Annette Detken (InsuResilience Solution Fund, ISF). The inputs focussed on providing background on the need to understand the underlying risk management tools to build a disaster management plan according to national circumstances and find fitting CDRFI solutions. 

During the second part of the workshop, members of the InsuResilience Program Alliance and other IGP partners introduced their programs and modalities of access for vulnerable countries. 

• Jan Kellet introduced the UNDP’s offers to vulnerable countries including Multi-Country Training, Vertical Fund Alignment and Access, UNDP Insurance & RIsk Facility Engagement Initiative and Tripartite Agreement and the UNDP CDRFI Platform.
• Sumati Rajput from World Bank presented financing options through the Global Risk Financing Facilitiy (GRiF).
• Josh Ling, introduced the Asia Pacific Climate Finance Fund (ACliFF), hosted at the Asian Development Bank and discussed its scope and risk financing opportunities. 
• Carolin Stetter introduced the KFW portfolio on CDRFI which includes financing global funds, macro-insurance for governments and microinsurance in the agricultural sector.
• Annette Detken provided inputs on the InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF) portfolio, focusing on insurance market building in vulnerable countries. 
• Eleanor Heavey from Centre for Disaster Protection (CDP) outlined their support offers to V20-policy makers through technical assistance and advisory on risk-ownership and management. 
• Disaster Finance Specialist Mark Davis, from the UK Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office  (FCDO) highlighted the FCDO’s 4 CDRFI objectives: (1) building evidence (2) scale-up of projects, funds, together with L&D and climate adaptation finance (3) country demand and improving coordination and (4) increasing impacts.
• Brandon Mathews, introduced the Sustainable Insurance Facility (SIF) hosted at UNEP-PSI-Fi, which will be set up as a global pipeline for insurance project development for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMSEs) in V20 countries.
• Josefine Greber from the German Federal Ministry for Development and Economic Cooperation (BMZ) introduced the G7 Proposal of a Climate Shield against Climate Risks that aims to protect vulnerable countries through better coordination in the CDRFI architecture, establishing a global, flexible collaborative financing vehicle and committing to sustained protection through Smart and Premium Capital Support.

The inputs were followed by a question and answer session with V20 and CVF members. Questions centered on the modalities of access to financing and capital, how to make programmes more complementary, create awareness and take-up of CDRFI solutions on micro- and meso-levels, and protection of the private sector and guidelines on how to implement a disaster risk management strategy on country level. 

The third session of the workshop focused on risk data and analytics for financial protection and included a presentation by Nick Moody on the recently launched Global Risk Modelling Alliance (GRMA) and how it supports vulnerable countries by technical assistance and making risk data and models available and understandable to developing countries. The workshop concluded with a feedback session where V20 and CVF members signaled great interest in regional follow-up workshops with IGP-partners to discuss available CDRFI-solutions more in-depth.