Together We Stand

[ 142 ] Image: WFP/David Orr Food and cash assistance is helping the most vulnerable people access the food they need to be healthy participating countries ranges from less than 10 per cent up to 30 per cent, with the remainder largely remaining with the United Nations appeals process. For this reason, ARC is opening up its insurance products to humanitarian actors such as United Nations agencies and non-govern- mental organizations (NGOs) by allowing them to take out policies that match those already provided to (and paid for by) African governments. This initiative, known as Replica Coverage, facilitates a doubling of climate risk insurance coverage for vulnerable populations in the short term, while building capacity for ARC member states to take out greater coverage for their risks in the longer term. International organizations and NGOs participating in this initiative will use international resources more cost-effectively through participation in ARC’s government-led risk management system. Furthermore, these Replica Coverage partners must act alongside the governments in building sovereign capacity to respond to natural disasters and will also have contingency plans approved by the relevant government as part of its broader plan submitted to ARC before it takes out insurance. By building on ARC’s government-led risk management infrastructure, the foundation is being laid for adding to the traditional appeals-based model for managing predictable natural disaster risks with a new, largely fore- cast-based system embedded at the sovereign level, thereby freeing up scarce humanitarian funds for complex risks that cannot be easily managed by governments nor financed by insurance-like instruments. The Sendai Framework, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris agreement on climate change and commitments made at theWorld Humanitarian Summit will focus greater investment on mitigating and reducing the economic and humanitar- ian impact of natural disasters on the world’s poorest. In this post-2015 world, Africa is leading the way. Straddling the devel- opment-humanitarian divide, ARC serves as a concrete example of developing countries taking innovative steps themselves to improve their national capacities to reduce risk and to change the way residual risks are assessed and managed. While focusing on natural disasters, ARC stands as a model with principles and building blocks that must underpin any future strengthening of the coordination of disaster relief and emergency humanitarian assistance, and alignment with longer-term sustainable devel- opment. These principles include country ownership of the process, taking a cross-disciplinary risk management approach and, where possible, starting with a viable long-term exit strategy from ongoing international humanitarian assistance. ARC’s value will grow as it scales up and in light of climate change and other risks facing the continent. Its integration of risk financing with disaster preparedness and risk reduction (through contingency planning and early warning) is a unique demonstration of the power of insur- ance to manage loss and damage from climate change, and to underpin a paradigm shift to fast, efficient and locally- led response to natural disasters. ARC’s aim is to catalyse this transformative process and set the stage for improved growth and resilience on the continent. T ogether W e S tand