Project Overview
While, at first sight, climate and disaster risk financing may not seem much more than a technical endeavor, its design and implementation come with socio-economic, political, and normative considerations. These include questions of risk ownership, payment capacity and responsibility, and inter- and intra-generational justice. As such, it requires a broad debate amongst all members of society and an effort to ensure that specifically the perspectives and requirements of those most affected by intensifying climate risks included. Doing so will ultimately help to enhance the uptake and sustainability of risk finance solutions and build value for people.
International and most importantly local civil society and community-based organizations are experts in understanding and assessing at-risk community vulnerabilities and are crucial to inform, aggregate, and communicate the demand side requirements of disaster risk finance. As such, they are key to putting at-risk communities at the center of instrument design, implementation, and monitoring.
Equally important are national civil society organizations that often act as development partners. Together with academia, they are indispensable to strengthen beneficiaries’ capacities in a targeted manner, to monitor national and international policy-making, and to convene relevant stakeholders. These include local communities, the private sector, international humanitarian partners, and the governments of vulnerable countries and donor countries. Ideally, these actions will help to improve market and instrument design, inform national budget allocations, leverage international support and premium financing, and catalyze the delivery of adequate risk analytics, risk capital, and complementary programs on risk reduction and resilience building.
To realize this potential, we strive to establish MAPs on Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) together with CARE Germany, Germanwatch, and our partner organizations from the Caribbean (CPDC), Senegal (ENDA Energie), Malawi (CARE Malawi and CISONECC), Madagascar (CARE Madagascar and SAF/FJKM), Laos (CARE Laos, only in phase-1), Bangladesh (CARE Bangladesh and AOSED), the Philippines (ICSC), and Sri Lanka (SLYCAN Trust and Chrysalis) to strengthen the technical understanding of CDRFI solutions and to spur an effective collaboration between CSOs, governments, and private sector stakeholders at the national and international level.
Our role in the consortium is to provide technical advisory on disaster risk finance design and international policy-making processes, to support and learn from our MAP partners and their engagement with national CDRFI implementation processes. Through active participation in and contribution to international bodies and partnerships such as the InsuResilience Global Partnership and the UNFCCC, we also endeavor to support a better understanding of and strengthened accountability to local and grassroots perspectives.
The consortium is led by CARE Germany, who together with MCII and Germanwatch, works with a particular set of local civil society and academic partners to implement the aforementioned objectives. MCII mainly collaborates with the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) in Barbados, which leads the build-up of national and regional MAPs across Barbados, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) which leads the development of the MAP in the Philippines.
Project Highlight
Free and comprehensive online course ‘Foundations of Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) and Impactful Civil Society Engagement’
Our Project Partners
For this project, MCII has partnered with CARE Germany, Germanwatch, MCII + Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC), Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONECC), Chrysalis, SLYCAN Trust, SAF/FJKM, Community Development and Environment Association (CDEA), ENDA Energy Environment Development.
This paper seeks to contribute toward research on Gender and Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance to increase the local knowledge base of indigenous sources of information to inform national and regional level strategies for the inclusion of marginalized groups. More specifically, the aim is to explore to what extent small-scale farmers – with a focus on women farmers in Barbados, Grenada, and Antigua and Barbuda – have access to parametric insurance (PI) and to provide recommendations on the types of additional actions and research needed to improve access and uptake. By extension, this also involves identifying barriers to accessing PI and to what degree gender is mainstreamed into PI programmes offered in the identified Caribbean countries, including the CCRIF SPC activities (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility). Drawing on a review of relevant literature and other sources of information, the following sections explore the concept of PI, how it works, its role in the agriculture sector in the face of climate change, and its emergence in developed and developing countries (section 1.1); how gender may be integrated, depending on the insurance approach (section 1.2); and existing PI facilities in the Caribbean, with specific emphasis on CCRIF SPC and its scope, members, products, and the extent to which gender is mainstreamed within it (section 1.3).
One of our project partners the Caribbean Policy Development Center (CPDC) has published the latest issue of their policy magazine ‘Caribbean NGO Trends’. The theme for this issue was ‘Pathways to Equal Protection’ and discusses diversity of social issues & how to address them to aid the most vulnerable groups. The issue highlights how Climate Risk Insurance can be an important tool for Caribbean countries while sharing case studies and outlining the frameworks and organizations involved.
Download Magazine
Our colleagues from the Climate Policy Development Center (CPDC) have developed a new video explaining how to build risk resilience through using the 3A’s approach (by the Overseas Development Institute, ODI) and by fostering Integrated Climate Risk Management (ICRM).
Watch the video here.
Our local partner organization, the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) has successfully conducted a virtual inception workshop with their CSO stakeholders in the Philippines amidst the COVID-19 pandemic! The workshop is the official and formal start to implementing the Multi-Actor Partnership in the Philippines.
On 7 August 2020, ICSC held the one-day workshop with various organisations and stakeholders with the objectives of
1. convening major actors of climate and disaster risk financing and insurance (CDRFI) to
get an overall lay of the land of CDRFI in the country;
2. providing a conducive space to discuss specific CDRFI issues, share knowledge and
perspectives;
3. linking international, national, and local CDRFI perspectives and establish a basis for
future collaboration on CDRFI in the Philippines; and
4. identifying the next steps for the MAPs to affect change in the country.
The workshop convened more than 60 individuals from national government agencies, insurance providers, academia, civil society, cooperatives, legislative bodies, and international organizations.
This is an important step to connect with CSO actors in our partner countries for the MAPs project and we are looking forward to engaging in follow-up activities in the coming weeks and months. Keeping in mind the safety of everyone involved, we will continue to explore alternative ways of facilitating an active exchange by supporting our local partner ICSC in their endeavor to build up an effective multi-actor partnership on CDRFI in the Philippines, despite the current crisis.
For more information about the event, see the concept note and slides below.
The webinar featured three break-out groups:
CDRFI and Adaptive Social Protection See the slides
CDRFI in the grassroot level See the slides
CDRFI and Slow Onset Events See the slides
Our colleagues from the Climate Policy Development Centre (CPDC) in Barbados are issuing the below call for proposals for a consultant to prepare a research paper on Gender and Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance.
Interested consultants should have a history of relevant work in the Caribbean region and/or be based in the Caribbean.
You can find the terms of reference for the paper on their website: https://cpdcngo.org/request-for-proposals-consultant-to-prepare-research-paper-on-gender-and-climate-disaster-risk-finance-and-insurance/
Our local partner organization Caribbean Policy Development Center (CPDC) has successfully conducted virtual kickoff workshops with their CSO stakeholders in Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and Grenada amidst the COVID-19 pandemic!
On 16, 17, and 18 June, CPDC colleagues in Barbados connected a variety of civil society actors via webinar with the aim to discuss Climate Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) practices and needs in the three countries. The objectives of these workshop were to:
- Enhance the knowledge of participants on key elements of CDRFI;
- Provide a space for participants to exchange knowledge, collaborate and share perspectives on CDRFI; and
- Identify the relevant steps for engaging in advocacy around CDRFI.
This is a first important step to connect with NGO actors in our partner countries for the MAPs project and we are looking forward to engaging in follow-up activities in the coming weeks and months. Keeping in mind the safety of everyone involved, we will continue to explore alternative ways of facilitating an active local exchange by supporting our local partner CPDC in their endeavor to build up an effective multi-actor partnership on CDRFI in the Caribbean, despite the current crisis.
