On 20 October 2019, the Program Alliance, the InsuResilience Global Partnership’s collaborative delivery vehicle consisting of donors and implementing partners, gathered in Washington D.C. on the margins of the World Bank Annual Meetings for its second meeting in 2019. The discussions centered around key priorities in implementation towards the recently announced InsuResilience Vision 2025, and a strengthened collaboration with the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Ministers of Finance.
Alliance members came together to update on progress made in each implementing program, incl. the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF), the InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF), the Centre for Disaster Protection and the Inclusive Insurance Programme under the United Nations Development Programme. UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) Development Bank also contributed to the discussions as standing members of the Alliance. In addition, guest programs, including the Africa Disaster Risk Financing (ADRiFi) Programme by the African Development Bank and the Green Climate Fund, were invited to facilitate a broader exchange and ensure complementarity across a wider set of actors engaged in climate and disaster risk finance and insurance.
The Alliance was humbled by the presence of V20 representatives, including the Honourable Ministers of Finance from the Republic of Marshall Islands and Costa Rica, as well as high-level representatives from the Bangladesh Ministry of Finance. Their contributions provided valuable insights into some of the most pressing needs in vulnerable countries, and triggered immediate reactions by alliance members on how each program may be able to deliver needs-responsive risk financing solutions. V20 representatives also presented the Sustainable Insurance Facility (SIF), a new V20-led mechanism to deliver effective climate risk insurance to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
As next steps, the Program Alliance looks forward to further framing collaboration with the V20 and the ISF, deepen country-level collaboration between programs to deliver comprehensive solution packages, address relevant findings from cutting edge research in the field, and foster a continuous engagement with the private sector. The alliance also welcomes Annette Detken – Head of the ISF – as the 2020 Chair of the Program Alliance, thanking Dr. Olivier Mahul – Global Lead for Crisis and Disaster Risk Finance at the World Bank – for his Chair in 2019.