Workstream 3:
Capacity Building & Knowledge Management
Develop capacities of all stakeholders to guarantee a broader understanding of Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance, with comprehensible information easily disseminated through user-friendly knowledge-sharing platforms
InsuResilience Working Group on Integrated Approaches
The Integrated Approaches Working Group contributes to the Partnership’s Vision 2025 by linking Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) to a comprehensive risk-management practice and supporting the Partnership in strengthening the long-term resilience of poor and vulnerable people. The Working Group facilitates knowledge exchange and dissemination on new and existing solutions which integrate different disaster risk-financing and insurance tools with other risk-management components. Such bundled solutions can assist in capturing shared benefits spanning various risk-management elements and help to overcome trade-off decisions between investments in risk reduction, preparedness or risk financing.
The Working Group was launched in 2018 with 25 members of the InsuResilience Global Partnership. That year, the Working Group jointly developed an integrated climate and disaster risk-management process. This formed the basis for a list of 12 integrated solutions that linked elements across the process. In 2019, the focus was on identifying linkages between risk reduction, ecosystem-based resilience and risk finance. As a result, three different studies were published (see links below):
- Ecosystem-based Adaptation and Insurance: Success, Challenges and Opportunities (insuresilience.org)
- The Value of Reefs for Protecting the Most Vulnerable Populations in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Grenada (insuresilience.org)
- Concept Development Study: Financing Flood Resilience in Indonesia (Mercy Corps)
In 2020, the Working Group activities focused on exchanging knowledge and experiences relating to new solutions – from initial concepts to fully implemented – that have emerged in the field of Integrated Approaches. As a medium for this exchange, the Working Group organized two web-talks, which provided a platform for different stakeholders to discuss potential collaborations and project pilots.
Both events were attended by participants from a broad range of stakeholder groups, including governments, civil society, international organizations, academia and industry.
Web-talks organized by the Working Group
This web-talk engaged leading experts who presented the underlying science of NbS, explored linkages to risk-financing instruments towards enhanced resilience and showcased concrete examples of solutions that link risk financing and insurance to NbS. The presentations also provided insights on the applicability of these approaches in different locations.
The main topics discussed during the web-talk were integrating resilience gains of NbS into risk financing and insurance approaches, safeguarding resilience barriers of ecosystems through financial protection mechanisms, looking into evidence of NbS strengthening resilience and applicability and piloting in new places.
As part of a broader preparedness strategy, early warning systems can inform governments and humanitarian actors about looming climate impacts and then trigger anticipatory action. CDRFI solutions can provide governments and vulnerable people with prearranged, readily available sources of financing to support early action in the face of climate risk.
This event showcased concrete examples of risk-financing solutions that are linked to early-warning systems, presenting options for anticipatory approaches to humanitarian funding and inclusive insurance solutions linked to early warning systems. The event was also used to gather deeper insights from participants on the applicability of these approaches. This web-talk was co-hosted by the Secretariats of the InsuResilience Global Partnership and the Risk-informed Early-Action Partnership (REAP).
Launch of sectoral communities
The Integrated Approaches Working Group launched four sectoral communities in late 2020 in order to increase the deep-dive into topic-specific discussions:
- Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Risk Financing,
- Integrated Resilience Approaches in Agriculture,
- Linking Risk Financing to Anticipatory Action and
- Risk Financing for Resilient Infrastructure.
The sectoral focuses are demand-driven, based on ideas and interest expressed in the Working Group.
The main objectives of these sectoral communities are to:
- Enable a more structured and focused exchange, a more effective learning process within the group, and moving more towards implementation and coordination on the ground.
- Co-create and jointly (further) develop solutions, and link needs with solutions by establishing dialogues between solution providers and beneficiary groups.
- Promote technical exchange on the latest evidence, trends and innovations, with the aim of feeding the pipeline under the Partnership with innovative, pilot-ready concepts.
The next step will be to define concrete deliverables for 2021 in each sectoral community.
If you would like to get involved in the Integrated Approaches Working Group, please contact secretariat@insuresilience.org.