While global efforts prioritise carbon emission reduction, Africa contends with immediate losses—environmental degradation, food scarcity, and economic instability—challenges that threaten to unravel development and exacerbate poverty. This highlights the need to merge development and climate strategies, ensuring community resilience under these conditions. Cenfri has been actively involved in shaping the insurance resilience landscape through a variety of projects. This has been possible through collaboration with key stakeholders like UNEP FI, FSDA, NDSI, and AXA. Our body of work includes insurance and inclusion diagnostics, climate risk management convenings and drafting policies and strategies that leverage insurance as a response to climate risks. We are keen to partner with others in expanding our portfolio of sustainability work and are exploring how to manage the trade-offs between economic opportunity, security and sustainability in Africa. |
The rise in climate-related hazards and catastrophic weather increases economic risks for low-income and middle-income countries. While insurance allows for faster recovery from disasters and increases resilience to future disasters, low-income and middle-income countries have large insurance protection gaps. The Insurance Development Forum estimates that USD160 billion of assets are
A changing climate affects everyone, but it’s the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, predominantly women and girls, who bear the brunt of environmental, economic and social shocks (IPCC, 2022a). For example, figures from the United Nations show that 80% of people displaced by climate change are women (Halton, 2018). There
In 2021, migrants’ remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) reached US$540 billion, only 1.6 per cent below the US$548 billion seen in 2019, and are expected to recover in 2021. In the offset of the crisis, over 200 million migrants defied predictions of the pandemic and continued to
Flooding in urban areas across Africa is on the rise. The continent needs to implement risk-management techniques to ensure its cities are resilient to climate change and the devastation it can cause. This article explores possible ways Africa can build resilience against flooding in urban areas. Across Africa the annual
Most Ugandans face insurable risks, yet uptake of insurance remains very low at only 1.4%. Innovations in global insurance markets have illustrated how insurance can be better designed, offer more affordably and thus provide better value for customers. Uganda enacted a new Insurance Act in 2018. This act expanded the
In many African countries, the potential for inclusive insurance markets is significant, however, this potential has yet to be fully realised. High entry barriers for new innovative players and regulation that may not effectively accommodate them are important contributing factors. The cell captive model has emerged as a way for entrepreneurs or organisations with an insurance business
But in Africa, there is more at stake A key imperative identified by our deep-dive studies across four sub-Saharan African countries was that for the insurance sector to contribute to sustainable development, policymakers and regulators need to take a more active role in leading and enabling innovation in their markets. Never has this imperative been truer than now – as the world is
A guidebook using nine Asian countries (Cambodia, India, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam) under the GIZ Integrated Climate and Disaster Risk Management Framework. Micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) form the backbone of many economies globally. They contribute considerably to economic growth, employment and innovation. The IFC estimates that MSMEs account
Unlocking the SME insurance market through a holistic approach to building resilience. I recently moved into an apartment above a popular Cape Town restaurant, the owner of which is also my landlord. Last week, the restaurant had a major leak that took a plumber three days to fix. Fixing a
The need to build greater resilience in Africa and globally has been clearly demonstrated by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our society. The insurance industry has not been unaffected; work Cenfri did with OESAI and FSD Africa in June indicated that over 60% of insurers experienced a
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the need for the African insurance sector to demonstrate its critical role in supporting people and businesses. The pandemic has been the most severe risk event in Africa in years, but many insurers have not delivered on their promise. If the sector
