Dakar, September 9, 2020 - The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group, a pan-African risk management insurance, organized today a conference during which the new Director-General of the Group, and United Nations Assistant Secretary-General (UN-ASG), Mr. Ibrahima Cheikh Diong and Mr Lesley Ndlovu, the CEO of ARC Ltd to present 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, in offering technical support to allow our countries to have better visibility on their risk profile in relation to climate change, to strengthen their capacities and to be prepared when a disaster strikes. ARC does not only offer insurance policies but rather integrated services across all of our member countries», declared Mr. Diong, Director-General of ARC Group.
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) is working towards the development of COVID-19 modelling tools for Africa to enable Member States to better manage this 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 agency. 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 equality between vulnerable women and men in ARC’s Member States.
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For more information:
Simon Pierre Diouf
Communications Officer
African Risk Capacity (ARC)
Mob: +221 77 801 22 21
Simonpierre.diouf@arc.int
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
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