The Issue

Drought, floods, and cyclones are predictable. Risk assessments and climate projections tell us what could happen or is likely to happen in the next weeks, months and years. With that information and lead time we can plan ahead, taking advantage of that time to put arrangements in place to ensure a timely, effective and appropriate response to the needs that we know will surface. When this is done in an organized, systematic manner, it is called ‘contingency planning’. When it is also done in a gender-equitable way, we can be confident that the response will be appropriate to men’s and women’s different needs and that it will empower them and advance gender equality.

ARC’s Approach

In ARC, the Contingency Planning phase follows the Country Engagement phase, as shown in the ARC Life Cycle. The Contingency Planning in ARC comprises the Operations Plan and the Final Implementation Plan. Having an Operations Plan is one of the criteria required for a Certificate of Good Standing, which in turn is needed for the country to participate in an insurance pool, while the latter allows the country to receive an insurance payout.
Until recently, ARC’s contingency planning process did not systematically integrate gender concerns. However, since ARC’s Gender Strategy was launched in 2019, efforts have started to integrate gender into the process and outputs of contingency planning, as described in the following sections.

Key entry points and checklists

1. Preparations

Preparations start with the establishment of the Technical Working Group (TWG). This group is formed by the ARC Focal Point based on ‘Terms of Reference’ developed during the Country Engagement stage. It is typically comprised of national authorities for disaster management and technical experts most knowledgeable about the hazards that ARC insurance covers, namely drought and storms (and eventually floods). For example, it may include specialists in Disaster Management, Meteorology, Agriculture, Food Security, and Gender. The TWG receives training on contingency planning from ARC, after which it begins to lead the process of developing the country’s contingency plan. When such national plans already exist as compiled with UN or other support, they typically form a basis for the ARC contingency plans.
To mainstream gender into preparations for contingency planning, ARC should :

• Promote gender balance of members on the TWG.
• Include gender explicitly in the Terms of Reference of the TWG (for deliverables, composition of team, other).
• Provide tailored gender mainstreaming training for the TWG, and ensure all members have completed the online training.

The approved format and templates that Member States are asked to use to develop in their Operational Plans (and the accompanying TRC guidance, scoring and forms) should be thoroughly revised to reflect the suggestions in this Guidance Note.

2. Institutional Capacity Assessment

The Technical Working Group assesses its country’s institutional capacity for disaster response. It inventories national policies, strategies, plans and/or legislation related to disasters and climate change. It also identifies the disaster response and coordination mechanisms and all relevant stakeholders, producing an organigram to show their roles and relationships. This is the focus of Section 2 of each member state’s national Operations Plan (OP). It may also be carried out during the Gender analysis.
To mainstream gender into institutional capacity assessment, ARC (and the TRC) should :

• Assess the TWG on gender mainstreaming capacity and make proposals for gender capacity strengthening to the ARC gender team.
• Consider and implement the recommendations of the gender analysis to inform the Contingency Plan and its choice of activities and processes.
• Check that the Ministry of Gender is visible as key actor within the organigram and clarify how it relates to and communicates with other DRM actors.

3. Assessments & Targeting

The Technical Working Group inventories and compiles pertinent risk knowledge and information from all annual assessment processes that take place in the country (covering both hazards and vulnerability). For drought, this includes annual crop assessments and early warning systems, but each hazard may have a different set. This is section 3 of the Operations Plan.
To mainstream gender into vulnerability assessments, ARC should :

• Recommend how to address all gender-related gaps identified during the gender assessment.
• Encourage that all data collected and applied in the Operation Plan be sex disaggregated.

4. Country Risk Profile

The Technical Working Group also reflects what is known about the annual patterns of factors linked to each hazard. For drought, for example, the Operations Plan describes the historical rainfall and the geographical distribution of the phenomena. It records each hazard’s behaviour historically, how it affects the main livelihoods of households across the country and impacts such as food insecurity (by region). It also notes whether or not drought was declared, the number of people affected, what type of response took place and where. This becomes Section 4 of the Operations Plan.
To mainstream gender into building the country risk profile, ARC should advocate for :

• Liaise with ministry of gender or relevant departments for women’s perspectives to be reflected in the compilation of information on disaster effects and impacts, if they were not consulted for existing reports.
• When recording impacts on livelihoods, include livelihoods that do not generate a monetary gain (as in the case of many women).
• Ensure that data used for operational planning is disaggregated by sex at the minimum and inform ARC Gender Unit as necessary.
• Recommend how to address all gender-related gaps identified in the gender analysis.

5. Institutional Capacity Assessment

In close collaboration with the TWG, Africa Risk View (ArcView) is programmed to define four scenarios that trigger different pay out amounts (none, small, medium, large) from ARC insurance. For each scenario, ArcView identifies affected regions and estimates the number of affected people. The objective of this step is to better understand the magnitude of impact as a planning tool and based on the severity of the hazard. In consultation with relevant stakeholders, the TWG is enabled to design the set of most appropriate interventions per scenario, including implementing partners and logistical arrangements, and agrees on the standard operating procedures. When an Operations Plan is finalized through in-country processes, the country submits it to the Secretariat. Several review processes then take place, including peer review by the external Technical Review Committee (TRC) that subsequently presents each OP for approval by the Board if TRC deems it to meet the minimum standards. Section 5 of the current Operations Plan template holds this information.
To mainstream gender into creating the operative action/Operations plan, ARC should :

• Encourage all implementing partners to complete gender and DRM training (as part of vetting procedures).
• Recommend equal representation of men and women in the decision-making committee for the elaboration of the OP.
• Ensure that plans for each scenario, especially including targeting and monitoring, are gender-sensitive.
• Advise that procedures for distributing and receiving cash are gender equitable.

6. Final Implementation Plan (FIP)

In the event that an ARC Ltd payout is triggered, a country is rapidly notified and required to submit a Final Implementation Plan (FIP) through the TRC to the Board. The FIP is essentially the same as the OP but with updated information on targeting and monitoring and evaluation and any justified changes since the OP approval. If it meets agreed standards, the payout can proceed.
To mainstream gender into developing the Final Implementation Plan, ARC should :

• Describe what gender-sensitive targeting mechanisms and criteria will be used to identify and reach the different categories of beneficiaries.
• Include a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System that has explicit gender-sensitive indicators for processes, outputs and outcomes.

Key Messages

Mainstreaming gender in CP will contribute to women’s empowerment and achieve gender equality even through insurance pay-out.

Gender mainstreaming is relevant to all stages of contingency planning, from the preparations, through the institutional capacity assessment, assessment descriptions, country profile building, targeting, development of the operational plan and the final implementation plan, and designing the monitoring and evaluation system.

Staff should use the Gender checklists to ensure the crucial steps and checks are in place for Gender mainstreaming throughout the Contingency Planning process.