African Risk
African Risk Capacity Presents New Strategies on
Vulnerable Population
The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group, a pan-African disaster
risk management institution, organized a conference in Dakar 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 solution consists in the implementation of a disaster
risk financing mechanism to help 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 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 a
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 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.
Simon Pierre Diouf
Communications Officer
African Risk Capacity (ARC)
Mob: +221 77 801 22 21