The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved the Africa Disaster Risks Financing (ADRiFi) programme – the institution’s first climate risk management programme aimed at boosting resilience and responding to climate shocks in regional member countries.

The initial phase is expected to run from 2019 to 2023.

The programme is expected to enhance the AfDB’s ability to evaluate climate-related risks and costs, respond to disasters and review adaptation measures at both national and sub-national levels.

It will also facilitate initial financing for countries in need of support.

The enhanced resilience and adaptation of countries to the negative impacts of climate change, as well as disaster risk insurance cover, will reduce the vulnerability of the poor to climate change and act as a safeguard against loss of livelihoods in communities, especially for smallholder farmers.

Nine countries, namely Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, have already expressed an interest in participating in the programme.

“Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change, [and is] prone to a variety of natural disasters, including droughts, floods and tropical cyclones. However, disaster risk management suffers from inadequate financing and challenges in the deployment of available funds,” says AfDB Agricultural Finance and Rural Development director Atsuko Toda.

ADRiFi will promote disaster response mechanisms such as sovereign parametric index-based insurance, for which payouts will be disbursed automatically and in a timely manner when a pre-defined risk threshold is exceeded.

It is estimated that every $1 spent on ex-ante intervention through the programme will save $4.40 in ex-post disaster relief measures for a response carried out six months after the event.

The ADRiFi programme is directly aligned with the bank’s ‘High 5’ priorities, particularly “Feed Africa” and “Improving the Quality of Life of Africans”.

It is also aligned with the Bank’s Climate Change Action Plan II (2016-2020) policy.

The AfDB has signed a memorandum of understanding with African Risk Capacity (ARC) to cooperate in preparing, developing and implementing projects and programmes in climate change and risk resilience in member countries.

As a key partner, ARC will assist member countries with policies on drought risk pools and other sovereign disaster risk measures.