Humanitarian agencies in Senegal are this week distributing aid as part of an early response to food shortage, which has been caused by the late onset of rainfall last year. This early action will help alleviate the suffering of those affected and reduce the need for them to resort to negative coping actions such as taking children out of schools, eating their seeds, and migrating or selling their farming implements.
African Risk Capacity (ARC) and Start Network members, including Catholic Relief Services, Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, Plan International, World Vision and Save the Children, will be acting alongside the Government of Senegal in advance of the lean season to enable farmers and their families to protect livestock and other valuable assets. More than 200,000 people are to be helped through cash interventions, and even more people through nutrition and agricultural projects.
The projects, totalling US $10.6m, are being funded through a ‘parametric’ insurance policy issued by African Risk Capacity Insurance Limited based on pre-agreed scientific triggers. This is part of the US $23.1m payout made to Government of Senegal and Start Network last November to provide early support to those affected by drought during the 2019 agricultural season. The payout to Start Network remains the biggest-ever funding allocation to civil society for early humanitarian action. Start Network’s response will complement that of the Government of Senegal, which will receive a payout of US $12.5m.
This initiative, called ARC Replica coverage, is being carried out in the form of a partnership between the Start Network, the Senegalese government, the Pan African Risk Management Mutual (ARC) and the World Food Program (WFP), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Development Bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). ARC Ltd is also jointly funded by KfW on behalf of BMZ and by the UK Department for International Development (DfID).
Read the full press release here
- Start Network is a global network of non-governmental organisations, made up of more than 40 national and international aid agencies from five continents. The network’s aim is to transform humanitarian action through innovation, fast funding, early action and localisation.
- The African Risk Capacity (ARC) is a Specialized Agency of the African Union established to help African governments improve their capacities to better plan, prepare, and respond to extreme weather events and natural disasters. It uses development insurance tools to help countries manage natural disaster risk and adapt to climate change. ARC’s parametric insurance approach links early warning systems to contingency plans that are tied to credible national response mechanisms using satellite weather surveillance software, through which it estimates the population affected by climate-related disasters and the associated response costs.