ARC positions itself as a leader in disaster risk management

L-R: Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, ARC Group Director-General; and Lesley Ndlovu, CEO, ARC Ltd during the press conference at the Terou-bi Hotel, Dakar, Senegal

The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group, a pan-African disaster risk management institution, organized a conference in Dakar today during which the new Group Director-General, and United Nations Assistant Secretary-General (UN-ASG), Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, and the CEO of ARC Limited, Lesley Ndlovu presented the institution, its strategy, its areas of activity and its impact on vulnerable populations across the continent.

ARC was established in 2012 as a specialized agency of the African Union to help African countries better anticipate and manage natural disasters. As such, ARC is an African solution that makes it possible to respond to the impacts of extreme weather events. Such solution consists in the implementation of a disaster risk financing mechanism to help Member States improve their capacities to better plan, prepare, and respond to climate change, thus protecting the food security of their most vulnerable populations.

”It is an integrated and holistic offer which consists, in addition to bringing financial responses, to offering technical support to allow our countries to have better understanding of their risk profile in relation to climate change, strengthen their capacities and to be prepared when a disaster strikes. ARC does not only offer insurance policies but rather integrated services across all our member countries”, declared the Group Director-General of ARC, Diong.

Through its financial affiliate, ARC Limited (Ltd), ARC enables its member countries to have adequate financial resources so that the first form of assistance to the populations in the event of disasters comes from the state and from the sovereign insurance offered by ARC.

“Since 2014 onwards, 62 insurance policies have been signed by Member States representing US$101.7 million in premiums paid for a cumulative insurance coverage of US$722 million for the protection of 72 million vulnerable people in participating countries», according to  the CEO of ARC Ltd, Lesley Ndlovu.

In addition to the insurance coverage it provides, ARC also plans to launch a new product in 2021 to help member countries fight floods. This product is already a pilot in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, the Gambia and Togo and will be available for all Member States. Likewise, ARC, in collaboration with the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has presented COVID-19 modeling tools for Africa to enable Member States to better manage the pandemic and assist the populations who need it most.

The gender issue in the context of disaster risk management is also among the flagship themes of the Group. Indeed, ARC has embraced a gender-sensitive approach in all its corporate activities as well as with its Member States. In this regard, ARC systematically integrates a gender perspective into its operations and policies in view of transforming disaster risk management approaches to achieve parity between vulnerable women and men in ARC’s Member States.