Opportunity Issue 103

CLIMATE CHANGE RISK
Shifting Africa’s
climate change
disaster-risk
architecture
Envato Images
Developed countries must support in building Africa’s climate change resilience, argues
African Risk Capacity, a specialised agency of the African Union.
All eyes are on the existential crisis posed by
climate change. The regular United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change
meetings put the focus on the multiple threats
the world faces, with many warning that lessons
for dealing with climate change threats must be learned from
how Africa handled the Covid-19 crisis. COP27 will be held in
Egypt in 2022.
Resilience in Africa to these climate change impacts can only be
built with the assistance of developed countries and these have
a vested long-term interest in providing this support, says Ange
Chitate, COO of African Risk Capacity Limited.
“Beyond Covid, the most critical risk to Africa is the availability
of water, which is directly linked to climate change. The
continent is extremely vulnerable to and bears the brunt of
drought, flooding, cyclones and other climate change-led
weather events, even though it has actually had very little
impact on carbon emission,” says Chitate. This is particularly
serious for a continent like Africa which depends so heavily on
agriculture for its economy and employment.
“When one considers that agriculture sustains two thirds of
Africa’s employment and that more than 80% of agriculture in
Africa is conducted by small to medium-scale farmers who are at
the mercy of climate change events completely out of their control,
COP talks have to deliver practical and meaningful support from
developed countries to help ensure a high level of preparedness
in the developing world for what is being touted as the next
pandemic,” Chitate adds.
It is a view shared by South Africa Forestry, Fisheries and Environment
Minister Barbara Creecy, who said that if the COP process is to be
successful, developing countries need support from developed
countries in the form of finance, technology and capacity building.
South Africa’s suggested global goal on adaptation sees focus being
placed on “the most vulnerable people and communities; their health
and well-being; food and water security; infrastructure and the built
environment; and ecosystems and ecosystem services, particularly in
Africa, Small-Island states and Least-Developed Countries”.
Minister Creecy also calls on developed countries to ensure
access to long-term, predictable and affordable finance for
developing communities.
Building African climate-change resilience
Natural disaster-insurance relief has a role to play in building resilience.
“There’s a responsibility for G7 countries to support Africa in managing
the impact of climate change by, for example, providing sovereigns with
parametric insurance premium finance to help them respond swiftly and
decisively to crises fuelled by climate change on the continent,” says
Delphine Traoré, ARC Limited Non-Executive Director.
Established in 2014, ARC Limited provides natural disaster-insurance
relief to African countries which have joined the sovereign risk pool.
Along with its partners, which provide premium support, the insurer
has already paid over $65-million to seven countries to provide drought
relief and address the economic concerns these countries’ most
vulnerable citizens face.
Governments then make payments to the most vulnerable
households in drought-stricken or other climate-affected areas so the
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