Regional bloc signs agreement with the African Risk Capacity
Tuesday October 08 2019
Neighbours chat while sitting in a flooded street of the Paquite district of Pemba on April 29, 2019, as Cyclone Kenneth hit northern Mozambique, killing 38 and destroying thousands of home. The SADC region is prone to a myriad climate and natural disaster risks, including droughts, floods, tropical cyclones and epidemics. PHOTO | EMIDIO JOZINE | AFP
The African Risk Capacity (ARC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on disaster risk management and financing in the region.
The agreement is intended to help put in place proactive and comprehensive measures to reduce the negative impact of disasters and other vulnerability drivers in the SADC region.
“The partnership will enable us to systematically work with SADC to better profile disaster risks facing the region, strengthen existing response capacities and contingency plans, and offer sovereign insurance options to enable rapid action when natural catastrophes occur”, stated Dr Mohamed Beavogui, the Director-General of African Risk Capacity, in a press statement.
The SADC region is prone to a myriad climate and natural disaster risks, including droughts, floods, tropical cyclones and epidemics. These have had devastating impacts on the populations with negative consequences for livelihoods and economic growth.
The SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Stergomena L Tax, noted that the partnership with ARC would place the region on a path to augmenting its existing response mechanism against drought and other climate risks.
Since 2014, 32 ARC policies have been signed by member states, with $73 million paid in premiums for a cumulative insurance coverage of $553 million for the protection of 55 million vulnerable population in participating countries.