Paving the Way for the Global Shield against Climate Risks

To start off the day, the Co-Chairs of the InsuResilience Global Partnership invite the audience on-site and online to reflect on their road travelled so far and the way that lies ahead for the Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance community. Moderator Minu Hemmati will introduce the agenda and the upcoming sessions.

Speakers:

H.E. Seedy Keita – Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, The Gambia
Hon. Dr. Henry Kokofu – Special Envoy of the CVF Presidency of Ghana
Dr. Heike Henn – Director Climate, Energy and Environment, Commisioner for Climate Policy and Climate Financing, German Federal Ministry for Economic Collaboration and Development

Moderator: Minu Hemmati

The objective of this session is to set the scene for the Annual Forum by showcasing different perspectives on the Global Shield against Climate Risks in the broader context of Loss & Damage exacerbated by climate change. Representatives of the COP 28 Presidency, private sector, civil society, and donor countries will provide a 3-5 min impulse on their views on the Global Shield, its alignment with their own ambitions, and possibilities for engagement for greater and more impactful results.

Speakers:

Dane McQueen – Director, Programs and Partnerships, COP28
Rowan Douglas – Director, Insurance Development Forum
Red Constantino – Deputy Chair of the Expert Advisory Group, Climate Vulnerable Forum
Jean-Christophe Donnellier, French Member of the Transitional Committee on Loss and Damage

Moderator: Minu Hemmati

This session brings together experts and practitioners in the field of Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance to explore the Global Shield’s potential for more coherent, systematic and sustained financial protection in vulnerable countries. Various efforts have been launched and are still ongoing across various institutions under the InsuResilience Global Partnership to scale up prearranged financing and enable fast and reliable financial assistance of climate-affected communities. This session brings together key figures across this institutional landscape to collect first-hand practical experiences on opportunities and challenges in scaling up financial protection.

The session will take a closer look at how the Global Shield’s in-country process and systematic coordination of financial and technical support can help unlock these opportunities and address key barriers. It will respond to the needs raised in the pre-ceding keynote speech, and provide valuable ideas for the further evolution of the Global Shield. 

Speakers:

Anne Kamau – Director, AB Consultants
Aholotu Palu – CEO, Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company
Jan Kellett – Corporate & Team Leader, UNDP Insurance & Risk Finance Facility
Theodore Talbot – Chief Economist & Associate Director, Centre for Disaster Protection

Moderator: Minu Hemmati

Countries with fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS) are often particularly vulnerable when it comes to climate shocks, as in most cases, their situation further reduces coping capacities. Pre-arranged finance can provide useful solutions to access financing for faster and reliable disaster response and emergency relief for affected communities, lowering the overall cost of disasters. However, specific challenges and operational constraints might apply in these countries, such as the “money-out” systems that are needed to channel the financing to the affected communities and the affordability of solutions. Studies found that the more fragile a country is, the less climate finance it received, supporting the idea that climate finance is risk adverse and often not reaching the most vulnerable. This means highly vulnerable populations are often being left behind. 

Financial protection in FCS is possible and can contribute to the overall resilience of the country. Therefore, in this session, we want to explore how the identified challenges and constraints can be addressed, based on learnings of the humanitarian community. We will look at existing examples and learn from experiences on the ground.

Speakers: 

Itoe Beryl Ikombe Panje – Secretary General, Ministry of Social Affairs Cameroon
Barbara Rosen Jacobson – Advocacy Advisory, Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance at Mercy Corps
Esther Muiruri – Delegate for South Sudan, German Red Cross
Juliane Schillinger – Technical Adviser Climate & Conflict, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Nicholas Bodanac – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Moderator: Kara Devonna Siahaan – Head, Anticipation Hub

At COP27, a groundbreaking decision to establish new funding arrangements and a fund for responding to loss and damage was taken. The Global Shield against Climate Risks was welcomed as initiative in the preamble of the decision. Until COP28, a Transitional Committee will develop recommendations for the operationalization of the new funding arrangements und the fund. For this, priority gaps within the current landscape need to be identified and addressed.

In this context, the Global Shield with its financing structure can mobilise and pool respective donor and other funds and enable a more systematic global approach to closing protection gaps specifically when it comes to dealing with climate risks. With the development and scale-up of pre-arranged instruments for rapid financial relief, it will help to cost-efficiently and effectively respond to loss and damage exacerbated by climate change. Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) solutions are interlinked with early warning systems and adaptive social protection to develop tailored country packages adapted to the pre-identified gaps.

Speakers: 

• Red Constantino – Deputy Chair of the Expert Advisory Group, Climate Vulnerable Forum
• Paul Desanker– Manager, Adaptation Programme, United Nations Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• Martin Kipping – Head of Division, Climate Policy, BMZ
• Chikondi Chabvuta – Advocacy and Partnerships Coordinator Southern Africa, CARE International
• Shakira Mustapha – Research Lead, Centre for Disaster Protection

 Moderator: Janna Frischen – Advisor, GIZ

In 2021, The Evidence Roadmap was published with the objective to strengthen the evidence base for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance impacts. This session looks into the latest evidence for macroeconomic effects of CDRFI and how it can inform the set-up of the Global Shield and V20 Climate Prosperity Plans. 

The session includes a keynote presentation from academic representatives on a recent publication and is followed by a discussion among panelists and participants. Closing words on next steps for the Evidence Roadmap will be delivered by Sönke Kreft, Executive Director of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative and Co-Chair of the InsuResilience Impact Working Group (tbc).

Speakers: 

Stephane Hallegatte – Senior Climate Change Advisor, World Bank
Krishnan Narasimhan – Global Lead Specialist, Climate Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance, UNCDF
Sinja Buri – Team Lead Solutions and Practice Partnerships, Munich Climate Insurance Initiative
Theodore Talbot – Chief Economist & Associate Director, Centre for Disaster Protection

This session will explore the role of the private sector in the Global Shield against Climate Risks and discuss how different private actors can evolve in contributing to the processes and solutions under the Global Shield. The first part of the session will take a closer look at methods of risk modelling and how this can help to quantify gaps for solutions. The participants will take part in an interactive learning of risk modelling where different scenarios in different regions are played out.   

​The second part will go into a discussion of existing gaps and how inclusive insurance schemes could look under the Global Shield. For this, the session will showcase an example from Kenya. Key to the outcomes of the session will be the discussion of the speakers together with the audience about the role of the private sector for the design of inclusive insurance schemes, the market setting, and guiding principles for processes from data collection and risk modelling, to implementation and collaboration with partners in other sectors.

Speakers: 

Nick Moody – Coordinator of Risk Modelling working group, IDF (& GRMA)
Saurabh Sharma – Representative, Britam
Pishenbay Umirbekov – Programme Coordinator, UNDP (Uzbekistan)

Moderator: Jennifer Phillips – Advisor, InsuResilience Secretariat

This session is an opportunity to share with the InsuResilience community the Accra-Marrakech Agenda to revolutionise risk management for our climate insecure world including to double down efforts to put in place anticipatory finance (pre-arranged and trigger-based funds) for loss and damage and mainstream surveillance and monitoring of climate risks of all kinds (physical, transition, spillover) in International Financial Institution (IFI) finance and credit rating practices, including through the landmark G7-V20 Global Shield against Climate Risks. The Global Shield is the financial protection element of V20-led Climate Prosperity Plans.

Speakers: 

Abena Takiywaa Asamoah-Okyere – Technical Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Ghana
Nilesh Prakash – Advisor, V20 Secretariat
Sara Jane Ahmed – Finance Advisor, V20 Secretariat
Foster Gyamfi – Principal Economics Officer, Ministry of Finance, Ghana
Denise Fontanilla – International Program Director, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities

Moderator: Alexandra Mieth – V20 Policy Support, MCII, UNU-EHS 

Participants will get a chance to have a look at posters presented by selected members on their work and network during the coffee break.

The session brings together representatives of the three Global Shield Financing Vehicles with the purpose of providing better understanding on how the vehicles work and complement each other to achieve more coherent, systematic and sustained financial protection in vulnerable countries. This will be done through short presentations by each vehicle of the mandates, approaches and instruments of types of support they offer, as well as exploring the decision process of how country requests are channelled to the different financing vehicles and how solutions packages would be designed in response. The presentations will be followed by an open Q/A session, during which members of the audience (in person and virtual) will have an opportunity to engage with the speakers to ask questions and / or clarify remaining doubts.

Speakers: 

Annette Detken – Head of the Global Shield Solutions Platform
Karsten Löffler – Co-Head of the Global Shield Solutions Platform
Simon Hagemann  – Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank, Global Shield Financing Facility
Kaavya Ashok Krishna – Senior Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank
Gurel Gurkan – Head of Programme, UNOPS
Sara Jane Ahmed – Finance Advisor, V20 Secretariat

Moderator: Daniel Stadtmüller – Team Lead, InsuResilience Secretariat

This session seeks to briefly highlight concrete examples of how gender considerations have been integrated into three example CDRFI programmes from a policy and product perspective, and in both macro and micro-level CDRFI models. The examples will be drawn from United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Insurance and Risk Financing Facility (IRFF); the United Nations Capital Development Programme (UNCDF) Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme (PICAP); and the World Food Programme (WFP). The three organizations all received support on gender-smart Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) of CDRFI programmes through the pilot InsuResilience Centre of Excellence on Gender-Smart Solutions (CoE) Technical Advisory Facility (TAF). The TAF aims to support and scale up the practical application of knowledge on gender-smart CDRFI solutions through the provision of virtual one-on-one tailored advice from the IGP CoE.

Speakers: 

Tuga Alaskary – Technical Specialist Risk Financing, Insurance and Risk Financing Facility (IRFF) at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Krishnan Narasimhan – Lead Specialist, Climate Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance, UN CapitalDevelopment Fund

Moderator: Katherine Miles – Gender Consultant, InsuResilience Global Partnership

In the closing remarks, Dr. Astrid Zwick will summarise key impressions of the day, and provide a brief overview of what comes next with the Global Shield and how the community can get involved.

Speaker:

Dr. Astrid Zwick – Head of InsuResilience Secretariat

Moderator: Minu Hemmati