The InsuResilience Centre of Excellence on Gender-smart Solutions has been fully launched at COP26 in Glasgow!
The first of its kind, the Centre of Excellence (CoE) is a platform for information and knowledge-sharing. ‘This great achievement is the product of a year of hard work by the InsuResilience Global Partnership and members of the Gender Working Group to commission studies and bring together research, guidance, opportunities and our community working at the intersection of gender and Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI)’, Canada’s Ambassador for Climate Change Patricia Fuller and high-level co-chair to the InsuResilience Gender Working Group highlighted at the launch event. Whether on a micro or macro level, all stakeholders are invited to share their experiences, knowledge and regional expertise to collaborate on gender activities and collectively develop guidance for policy and practice.
Chikondi Chabvuta, CARE International Advocacy and Partnership Coordinator for Southern Africa and Co-Chair to the InsuResilience Gender Working Group emphasised the great contributions of the members to ‘develop a cohesive narrative and lay the groundwork for the field to grow’. This includes the realisation of the Declaration on Gender which consolidates voluntary efforts by members of the Partnership at the highest level to integrate equitable gender-smart solutions into CDRFI. She continued to highlight the profound meaning of gender-smart approaches and how these shape the world of practice: ‘The way we consider gender must be transformative. This includes women not being seen as recipients or beneficiaries of insurance and social protection mechanisms, but agents of influence, and [it includes] trying to undo the institutional barriers that prevent women from benefitting from and shaping these mechanisms.’
The positive impact that the gender activities of the CoE partners are carrying into the future can already be seen in stories of change that were presented by members of our community. Nora Bouhaddada, representative from the UN Climate Champions notes that this ‘platform is a concrete contribution to the Race to Resilience campaign and highlights the need to ensure gender-dimensions remain cross-cutting in all our activities.’ Gernot Laganda, Chief for Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction at the World Food Programme (WFP), brought success stories of the WFP resilience-building programmes to the table which are available on the CoE website in a blog article.
Further, Eva Kavuma, African Risk Capacity (ARC) Chief Operations Officer, presented how ARC is adopting a gender approach to transform disaster risk management with an African regional platform, also highlighting the complementarities between the two platforms. Vositha Wijenajake, Executive Director of the non-profit think tank SLYCAN Trust, is also familiar with the positive outcomes of collaboration within the CoE partnership and sees the potential of the cooperation to close the gaps in gender-responsive options for capacity building. For this, SLYCAN Trust provided a blog article on Gender and Climate Risk transfer on the CoE platform.
With the full launch, the CoE consolidates the knowledge and efforts of a growing community of gender champions. Closing the event, Tuga Alaskary, Lead of the Centre of Excellence, encouraged all actors working on climate risk to become an active part of the InsuResilience community ensuring that the platform is demand driven and remarked to ‘hold us [the InsuResilience Secretariat] accountable! We hope that in a year you feel that this really is driving your work towards greater gender-sensitive, -responsive and -transformative approaches.’
Check out opportunities on how to engage, explore or contribute to the four pillars of the CoE website and contact the InsuResilience Secretariat to become a partner. Keep an eye out for next year’s activities where you will see the release of an Expert Directory aimed at connecting specialists with projects for implementation, and an Advisory Facility which will scale up advisory support currently offered by the InsuResilience Secretariat to its members, with a focus on gender-responsive topics. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep yourself informed on our activities.
You missed our contributions at COP26 on Gender Day?
Watch the full launch event of the InsuResilience Centre of Excellence on Gender-smart Solutions here:
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Watch Tuga Alaskary’s contribution to the European Union side event on Why does investing in scaling up gender-responsive climate action matter? Hear her speak on the available resources that the CoE offers to guide policymakers and practitioners on innovative, inclusive gender-responsive and transformative quality Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance solutions.
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At the high-level UK Presidency headline event on Gender Day, ‘Advancing Gender Equality in Climate Action’, our InsuResilience Global Partnership and Gender Working Group member Mahila Housing SEWA Trust represented the InsuResilience Centre of Excellence on Gender-smart Solutions (CoE) showcasing collaboration efforts and successes in implementing gender activities in India.
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