The African Risk Capacity Ltd (ARC Ltd) is delighted to announce that it has been awarded Global Banking & Finance Review magazine’s Most Innovative ESG Risk Protection Company Africa 2017. Dolika Banda, CEO of ARC Ltd, said, “We are gratified to receive this great recognition. In 2017, we celebrated half a decade of tireless work and look forward to continuing to build inclusive and cutting-edge approaches to managing climate risks in the years ahead.” In 2017, and in each year since ARC began offering sovereign disaster risk insurance, ARC interventions have helped avert situations that could have forced millions of families to sell off household assets, take children out of school, and face chronic food insecurity as a result of herds and crops perishing. When ARC was being developed, it was recognised that ARC’s value proposition would be maximised through the integration of risk assessment, early warning, risk reduction through contingency planning, and risk financing through parametric insurance. This crucial combination allows for early, pre-planned response, which has been shown to be greater than four times more cost-effective than the appeals-based drought response historically used to address Africa’s food security shocks. Countries participating in ARC’s insurance offering benefit from being part of a diversified risk pool and from the remarkably cost-effective access to global risk markets made possible through ARC Ltd. ARC’s offering enables African countries to be equipped to manage climate-related disasters to a greater extent than previously experienced, while providing access to funding that is much more immediate. The award announcement is published on the Global Banking and Finance Review website. # # # About African Risk Capacity (ARC) ARC consists of ARC Agency and ARC Insurance Company Limited (ARC Ltd). ARC Agency was established in 2012 as a Specialised 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; it is owned by Member States with active insurance policies as well as KfW Development Bank and the UK Department of International Development (DfiD), as capital contributors. ARC plays an important role in responding to countries’ needs at times of crisis by providing fast access to funding for pre-agreed-upon, rapid response plans developed in conjunction with governments. ARC’s financing complements other forms of local and international support. In the few years since ARC began, it has proved to be an effective and vital model – paying out USD $34 million to four countries (Senegal, Niger, Mauritania, and Malawi) affected by drought events. Those resources provided assistance for over two million people and approximately one million cattle. ARC is using its expertise to help tackle some of the greatest threats faced by the continent, including droughts, outbreaks and epidemics, and tropical cyclones.