The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group, a pan-African disaster risk management institution, organized a conference in Dakar yesterday during which the new Group Director-General, and United Nations Assistant Secretary-General (UN-ASG), Mr. Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, and the CEO of ARC Limited, Mr. Lesley Ndlovu presented the institution, its strategy, its areas of activity and its impact on vulnerable populations across the continent.
ARC was established in 2012 as a specialized agency of the African Union to help African countries better anticipate and manage natural disasters. As such, ARC is an African solution that makes it possible to respond to the impacts of extreme weather events. Such a solution consists of the implementation of a disaster risk financing mechanism to help the Member States improve their capacities to better plan, prepare, and respond to climate change, thus protecting the food security of their most vulnerable populations.
«It is an integrated and holistic offer which consists, in addition to bringing financial responses, to offering technical support to allow our countries to have a better understanding of their risk profile in relation to climate change, strengthen their capacities, and to be prepared when a disaster strikes. ARC does not only offer insurance policies but rather integrated services across all our member countries», declared Mr. Diong, Group Director-General of ARC.
Through its financial affiliate, ARC Limited (Ltd), ARC enables its member countries to have adequate financial resources so that the first form of assistance to the populations in the event of disasters comes from the state and from the sovereign insurance offered by ARC.
«Since 2014 onwards, 62 insurance policies have been signed by Member States representing US$101.7 million in premiums paid for cumulative insurance coverage of US$722 million for the protection of 72 million vulnerable people in participating countries», according to Mr. Lesley Ndlovu, the CEO of ARC Ltd.
In addition to the insurance coverage it provides, ARC also plans to launch a new product in 2021 to help member countries fight floods. This product is already a pilot in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, the Gambia, and Togo and will be available for all Member States. Likewise, ARC, in collaboration with the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has presented COVID-19 modeling tools for Africa to enable the Member States to better manage the pandemic and assist the populations who need it most.
The gender issue in the context of disaster risk management is also among the flagship themes of the Group. Indeed, ARC has embraced a gender-sensitive approach in all its corporate activities as well as with its Member States. In this regard, ARC systematically integrates a gender perspective into its operations and policies in view of transforming disaster risk management approaches to achieve parity between vulnerable women and men in ARC’s Member States.
About ARC:
African Risk Capacity (ARC) consists of ARC Agency and ARC Insurance Company Limited (ARC Ltd). ARC Agency was established in 2012 as a Specialized Agency of the African Union to help Member States improve their capacities to better plan, prepare and respond to weather-related disasters. ARC Ltd is a mutual insurance facility providing risk transfer services to Member States through risk pooling and access to reinsurance markets. ARC was established on the principle that investing in preparedness and early warning through an innovative financing approach is highly cost-effective and can save upward of four dollars for every dollar invested ex ante.
With the support of the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, France, The Rockefeller Foundation and the United States, ARC assists AU Member States in reducing the risk of loss and damage caused by extreme weather events affecting Africa’s populations by providing, through sovereign disaster risk insurance, targeted responses to natural disasters in a more timely, cost-effective, objective and transparent manner. ARC is now using its expertise to help tackle some of the other greatest threats faced by the continent, including outbreaks and epidemics.
Since 2014, 62 policies have been signed by Member States with US$101.7 million paid in premiums for a cumulative insurance coverage of US$722 million for the protection of 72 million vulnerable population in participating countries.
For more information, please visit: www.africanriskcapacity.org
