Blogs

Pakistan is in trouble. Heavy monsoon rains have flooded an area the size of the UK. The country’s National Disaster Management Agency estimates that 33 million people are affected.

Between spring 2020 and early 2022, the Centre supported OCHA in undertaking process learning on four anticipatory action (AA) pilots in Somalia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Malawi.

The obvious next question for humanitarian actors and donors is simple: "when is risk transfer a good option?".

Insurance can be a useful tool for managing the unpredictable costs of disasters. But humanitarians have a number of particularities linked to their principled approach, their funding and operating models.

Last month, the Centre hosted the executive leadership and technical experts for a Risk Pool Summit for two days of knowledge sharing, strategic alignment, and collaboration.

In the first in a series of three blogs, Conor Meenan, Lead Risk Finance Specialist for the Centre, sets out to explore the role for risk transfer instruments – such as insurance - in a humanitarian context.

We are excited to announce that Theodore Talbot, Cristina Stefan, Omaira Chaudhry and Jessica Texter will be joining the team bringing years of experience across a diverse range of sectors.

This blog by Michèle Plichta reflects on the international crisis financing response to date and what this tells us about the state of how the world pays for disasters.

Mairi Dupar, Senior Technical Advisor for ODI tells us why the emergent pre-agreed disaster risk finance agenda cannot afford to be gender blind and calls for DRF mechanisms which bring transformative benefits to women and girls.

In this blog, three things the World Bank’s IDA replenishment and its stakeholders could do to play their part in making the international crisis financing system smarter, faster, and better targeted.

Responding to recent IDA20 replenishment announcement, the Centre’s Daniel Clarke says it’s time to look through a different lens and shift the coversation to what’s really needed.

Amongst those worst affected by climate change are pastoralists, who rely on herding livestock across Africa’s arid and semi-arid lands for their livelihoods.

In the month that has passed since leaders met in Glasgow, there has been a lot of discussion on the successes and failures of this year’s COP – without doubt the most important dialogue on climate to date.

Ato Sufian Ahmed Beker reflects on his experiences of crisis finance and how the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that the international aid system is no longer fit for purpose.

One of the big debates at this week’s pivotal UN climate summit in Glasgow will be the size and shape of the package of finance to help low income countries adapt to the devastating effects of climate change.

The Centre is delighted to announce a new non-executive Board made up of nine members.

The Haiti earthquake is the latest tragedy to befall a beleaguered nation. While the road to recovery will be long, the country has already benefited from a relatively new approach to funding such disasters that saw life-saving international financing delivered within two weeks of the initial shock.

Responding to today’s IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, the Centre’s Daniel Clarke calls on world leaders to urgently tackle climate risk.

By Debbie Hillier: “I’ve been working in humanitarian policy for twenty years, after recently working on a study for the Centre for Disaster Protection and Development Initiatives I was surprised to find some of my assumptions challenged.”

In this blog, Conor and Chris reflect on a short report which presents a retrospective analysis of IRC’s approach to financing the first nine months of the COVID-19 outbreak.