This event report summarises the objective, activities and next steps from the workshop held at Santam in
Cape Town, South Africa on 20 February 2020 – hosted by Cenfri, FSD Africa and InsuResilience.
The workshop was held in response to a need, identified by underwriters at the UNEP-PSI workshop
in Lagos in 2019, to bring together a range of stakeholders to collaborate to mitigate risks and losses
faced by communities, businesses and governments as result of climate-change driven disasters in
Africa. Many of these disasters are driven by extreme weather events, including variability in rainfall
patterns. The workshop brought together stakeholder groups and brainstorm opportunities for collaboration:
Underwriters can strengthen the resilience of countries in the face of climate change by
transferring risk to recover from disasters, by building resilient assets, by underpinning infrastructure through effective investment and underwriting approaches and by incentivising and capacitating risk management systems.
- Government/city officials are responsible for planning and maintaining cities and infrastructure,
developing legislative and policy frameworks that incentivise adaptation, encouraging and
coordinating action between various stakeholders at the regional/sub-regional level, catalysing
funding for cross-sectoral initiatives and addressing market failures and barriers to adaptation
efforts.
- Academics and experts provide scientific advice and analysis on climate change adaptation,
increasing the understanding of effective responses to the complex socioeconomic and
environmental impacts of climate change and helping other stakeholders to develop the
strategies, tools and policy advice needed to respond effectively.
- Development partners can provide financial support, knowledge and other resources to facilitate
adaptation efforts, and can initiate projects, programmes, or technical assistance efforts that
support local or regional adaptation efforts.