Workstream 2: Action & Implementation
Enable effective action and implementation of high-quality Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance solutions in poor and vulnerable countries
Program Alliance Implementing Partner Update - World Bank / Global Risk Financing Facility
By the World Bank Group
The Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF) is a Multi-Donor Trust Fund which provides grants to test, pilot and scale up prearranged financial instruments to help developing countries better manage the impacts from climate shocks, disasters and crises. The programme contributes to the InsuResilience Global Partnership’s Vision 2025. As of 30 June 2020, Germany and the United Kingdom have pledged over USD 230 million in contributions to the GRiF, of which USD 177.7 million has been disbursed.
The GRiF completed its second full annual cycle in October 2020 since the approval of the GRiF operational documents. By November 2020, the GRiF had awarded project grants worth a total value of nearly USD 135 million including USD 127 million country grants to Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and the Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Insurance Facility (SEADRIF), as well as USD 8 million for global public goods grants¹. In addition, USD 3.74 million have been awarded in scoping grants from January 2019 to date.
¹ GRiF grants were approved for Afghanistan, Jamaica, Morocco and SEADRIF in FY20, but the overall World Bank projects have not yet been approved by the Board.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, GRiF stakeholders at the Steering Committee Meeting in April 2020 reflected on what role the Facility could play as the pandemic reached more low and middle-income countries, and agreed to take actions on two fronts:
1) Restructure the pipeline to mobilize for Covid-19. GRiF is providing small grants of up to USD 200,000 for short-term analytical work which incorporates financial preparedness to compound shocks into projects for Covid-19 response and recovery that are currently under preparation. By the end of FY20, GRiF had already awarded three grants worth USD 750,000 to support MSMEs in Burkina Faso from risk of drought, water utilities in three pilot countries (Albania, Brazil and Colombia), and technical assistance to assess the financial impacts of Covid-19 on SMEs in different countries.
2) Adapt existing projects to support pandemic preparedness and response. Some existing projects were adjusted to shift the focus from programming for disaster risks to leveraging systems to support Covid-19 response and resilience building against potential compound shocks.
In FY20, the GRiF set out its Communications Strategy built around three pillars:
- integrate financial resilience,
- expand global knowledge and
- inform stakeholders, potential grantees and the public. In line with the Strategy, the GRiF launched its first communication products this year including a programme brochure, a video explaining the mechanism of the programme, a newsletter series and two blog posts with strong readership on the GRiF’s relevance during the Covid-19 pandemic and disaster risk-finance lessons to inform Covid-19 response.
As GRiF investments support the development and testing of innovative risk-financing solutions, lessons learned from the design and implementation of such solutions provide a tremendous learning opportunity in the disaster risk-finance and insurance space. The GRiF Secretariat established a strong Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) foundation in FY20 that will be built on over the life of the Facility. The MEL team designed a Theory of Change and an MEL Framework to capture and share GRiF learnings. GRiF will focus on operationalizing the GRiF MEL Framework in FY21.
Approved GRiF Project Grants (January 2018 – present)
| No. | Country | Project name | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Awarded during January 2019 – present | |||
| 1 | Mozambique | Strengthening Financial Protection | AFR |
| 2 | Sierra Leone | Shock-Responsive Safety Nets | AFR |
| 3 | Global Analytics | Crisis Risk Analytics | GLOBAL |
| 4 | Malawi | Shock-Responsive Safety Nets | AFR |
| 5 | Jamaica | Financial Solutions for enhanced resilience | LCR |
| 6 | Afghanistan | Shock Responsive Resilience Systems | SAR |
| 7 | ASEAN | SEADRIF - Strengthening Financial Resilience in Southeast Asia | EAP |
| 8 | Indonesia | Indonesia – Implementing the National DRFI Strategy | EAP |
| 9 | Morocco | Morocco - Risk Transfer Solutions for Solidarity Fund | AFR |
| 10 | DRC | Risk Finance Solutions for Agriculture and Food Security | AFR |
| Awarded during pilot phase (January – December 2018) | |||
| 11 | Global Analytics | Challenge Fund: Applications of Open Data Framework | Global |
| 12 | Global Analytics | Challenge Fund: Innovations in Risk Financing | Global |
| 13 | Sri Lanka | Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance in Sri Lanka | SAR |
| 14 | Global Analytics | Famine Early Action Mechanism | Global |
| 15 | Global Analytics | Design of Start Facility - Supporting humanitarian financing | Global |