CISONECC, Malawi Government launch Multi-Actor Partnership on Climate Change, Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance
Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONECC), in partnership with the Government of Malawi, on Thursday launched the first-ever Multi-Actor Partnership (MAP) on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance at a function that was held at Linde Hotel in Mponela, Dowa.
MAP has been initiated to build capacity of the government and its partners in responding to the increased frequency, intensity, and magnitude of extreme weather events Malawi has been experiencing over the recent past.
It is reported that more than 50 disasters associated with hydrometeorological events, including storms, floods, landslides, and droughts, have hit Malawi, affecting millions of people, since 1980.
Over 25 disasters associated with severe rainfall events (floods, landslides, and storms) have occurred in the last decade alone and have exhibited an incremental upward trend in the number of people affected.
These frequent disasters impose on the country large costs for repairs and rebuilding, diverting scarce resources from other development needs. The 2015 floods resulted in 278 deaths, 638,000 people affected, and physical damages and economic losses of $422 million equivalence while the 2019 floods resulted in 60 deaths, 975,000 people affected, and damages and losses of $257 million equivalence.
Hence, speaking when he officially launched the platform, Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change (Administration), James Ali, said the platform signifies the country’s resolve to avert catastrophe emanating from natural disasters.
“MAP is a very important platform as it is a vehicle or it will foster on arrangement which will bring all the stakeholders together and the objective of this launch is really want to make sure that this platform is formalized.
“It has been operating informally, but more importantly, it has also been launched in order to raise awareness of all stakeholders and by stakeholders, which include the government, the academia and research institutions. The civil society groups even the chiefs, these are some of the stakeholders who will be involved in the implementation of this project and platform,” said Ali.
The PS added that the platform will be very critical in raising awareness about various disaster, including cyclones Gombe, Ana and Freddy.
“Now when disaster occur its not the responsibility of only one organization or stakeholder, by bringing all the stakeholders together when it come to issues of financing, it means will be able to mobilize as many resources as possible to assist the affected vulnerable groups who has been either displaced or even in great need of help as a result of disaster.
“I actually invited all the stakeholders including those who have not yet joined this platform to make sure that much they are helping they should double the efforts, because according to evidence based reports because of climate change we are going to continue experiencing these disasters and therefore we might not know what will come tomorrow.
“More importantly, I was also emphasizing on the need for preparedness rather than on disaster response, we should be able to prepare for these disasters before they occur and again that aspect requires re- doubling the efforts of all stakeholders,” he said.
In his remarks, CISONECC Executive Director Julius Ng’oma described the launch as “a very momentous occasion that we witness this launch after having a partnership to advancement in the climate and insurance”.
Ng’oma said MAP has been operating informally and it taught them the need to formalize the gathering in order to help the government in putting in place equitable policies that will help this country to surpass disaster risk financing, including the element of insurance.
“So, I think it is a welcome idea that our principal secretary and government come forward and launch this one on behalf of everyone, so that out there the message is clear that let’s coordinate and collaborate as stakeholders, this issue of fighting against climate change is not only for the civil society or government, it’s for everyone to play a role, the academia, media, even the local leadership, they have a role to play in addressing the impacts of climate change, the risks that are there, the hazards and even managing the disasters,” he said.
“So I think this set up we are safe and good to go and work with everyone advancing the issue of risk insurance and financing and ensuring that the local communities out there are actually releasing the resilience that we always talk about impacts which come as a result of climate change.
“In this country we have been seeing a lot of changes in terms of weather and climate, we have been seen droughts that are coming more frequently, flooding event and frequency in cyclones and on these issues we can do what we can, we can adapt but there can still be residual that can be need to be managed in one way or another,” he added.
Ng’oma stated that insurance is one part of the solution to ensure that the people adapt to the impact of climate change because whatever the case there has to be a case that needs to be managed somewhere.
He said the crop insurance is very pertaining in the fact that “we are also having droughts amidst us, so this droughts will always affect us, will always affect all our livelihoods so if we also to be proactive in terms of managing the impacts of climate change one way is also to make sure that we are being engaged in insurance policies like these”.
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