Rotterdam, the Netherlands September 6, 2021 - The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group and the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build climate resilience in the agriculture sector by facilitating investments in risk management into government planning and high-level advocacy. This will be supported by a joint assessment of the landscape for developing risk transfer instruments and other innovative instruments to enhance African countries participation in ARC Disaster Risk Pools.

Under the MoU, signed by the heads of both insitutions, the Parties will jointly engage in high-level advocacy and the facilitation of dialogues to ensure their stakeholders can access the best disaster risk financing practice and instruments as part of their overall climate adaptation strategies.

Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of GCA, noted the need for such collaboration in mobilizing new sources of finance for adaptation:

“There is a five-to-tenfold gap between the financial resources currently devoted to climate adaptation and the adaptation needs in developing countries. More private-sector investment and new financial instruments are needed to help vulnerable communities withstand accelerating climate impacts. Through this partnership our Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program will work to ensure we can adapt at scale across the continent and provide the support that is so desperately needed by those living on the frontline of our climate emergency.”

“Achieving climate resilience in Africa demands smart partnerships and purposeful alignment among like-minded agencies”, said UN-ASG Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, Director-General of the ARC Group. “We are confident that the collaboration with GCA will be a strong enabler to ensuring that we maintain a solution-oriented approach in assisting our members with the innovative tools, capacity building, and financial resources they need for an anticipatory response to natural disaster risks”, added Mr. Diong.

The partnership agreement also targets collaboration in policy influencing activities to align the African financial sector with climate change commitments at the national and global levels. This will include mainstreaming the inclusion of climate resilience among African financial insurance regulators as well as knowledge generation and dissemination to strengthen disaster risk mitigation initiatives at all levels.

ARC and GCA are uniquely positioned, within the scope of the partnership and mandates, to work in synergy for the achievement of their common objectives. This will help in providing holistic and innovative solutions to build resilience by scaling up adaptation for timely climate disaster response in African Union Member States.