15+16 April 2019:

Climate change is one of most pressing challenges to the humanitarian sector. It is also one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century. On 15th and 16th April more than 600 practitioners, scientists, experts and political figures met to link global ambitions to the experience of the Red Cross and Red Crescent network and its partners. MCII was asked to provide special expertise for the topic of food security and the relevance of climate risk insurance strategies.

Food supplies worldwide have become increasingly volatile and unstable. Weather and climatic extremes are the predominant driver for food production shocks especially for crops but also livestock. Increased frequency of shocks mean reduced time for recovery between shock events which challenge existing coping strategies. An interconnected, shock-prone world is becoming the new norm highlighting the need to improve disaster risk management, preparedness and social/financial protection approaches.
Insurance strategies might provide a remedy by, for instance, benchmarking payouts to food security objectives.

However, insurance approaches need to be embedded in a layered risk prevention and financing approach that shifts resource mobilization and planning into proactive rather than reactive approaches to manage disasters. As the debate of climate and disaster risk finance and insurance salutation gains more prominence, higher standards of governance and practice become necessary. The Pro-Poor Principles of the IGP set expectations towards the public and private sector on Impact, Quality, Ownership, Complementarity and Equity. These provide the basis for applying further insurance strategies to better prepare countries and communities against future food insecurities.