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
The micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector is arguably the biggest employer in many economies, particularly in the developing world. It’s also often the biggest source of jobs for marginalised segments such as women, youth and poor communities. But exactly how big is the sector, and how many jobs
Traditionally, actuaries find themselves poring over mortality tables and calculating complicated risks with limited data, particularly in emerging markets. With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, this is changing. The world seems to be revolving around data. Data is making our lives more convenient. We have fridges that order
The housing shortfall in Africa is immense. For instance, the World Bank (2017) estimates that across eight countries in West Africa about 800,000 new housing units are needed every year to address the housing shortages. Yet, banks in these countries collectively only issue 15,000 new mortgages per year. Similar shortages
The housing shortfall in Africa is immense. For instance, the World Bank (2017) estimates that across eight countries in West Africa about 800,000 new housing units are needed every year to address the housing shortages in those countries. Yet, banks in these countries collectively only issue 15,000 new mortgages per
Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are the lifeblood of most economies globally. They are recognised as one of the primary engines for growth and employment, making up at least 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide. Policy-makers and donors are increasingly pushing MSME development, and global
Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play a key role in economic development, but they face challenges in accessing finance. In Uganda alone (as in most other sub-Saharan African countries), MSMEs account for approximately 90% of private-sector production, over 80% of manufactured output and 18% of GDP contribution (National Small Business Survey of Uganda, 2015; Ministry of Trade,
Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are recognised globally as a major engine of growth and employment creation. Access to finance is their most commonly cited barrier to growth. The IFC estimates that there are between 200 and 245 million formal and informal MSMEs in developing countries that do not
