The first webinar in the Global Shield’s new series premiered July 28 and explored how climate risk analytics can strengthen decision-making on Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI). With over 160 attendees, the discussion highlighted five key lessons:
- Effective financial protection starts with understanding risk. Governments need reliable information on hazards, exposed people and assets, vulnerability, and potential losses. This evidence can guide policies, budgets, preparedness, and recovery planning.
- Quantitative models help translate risk into financial decisions. Catastrophe models combine hazard, exposure, and vulnerability data to estimate the likelihood and scale of losses. Measures such as Annual Average Loss and return-period losses can inform reserve levels, insurance coverage, and other financing arrangements.
- Different risks require different financial instruments. Through risk layering, governments can use reserves and contingency funds for frequent, lower-cost events, while insurance and other risk-transfer mechanisms can provide protection against rarer, more severe disasters.
- Country ownership is essential. Sustainable risk analytics depends on local expertise, accessible and regularly updated data, and strong coordination between ministries and technical agencies. Experiences shared from Madagascar and Malawi demonstrated the value of building national capacity and bringing institutions together.
- Parametric insurance can provide rapid financing. Payouts are triggered when predefined indicators reach agreed thresholds, enabling funds to be released quickly. However, reliable data, careful trigger design, and efforts to reduce basis risk are critical.
You can review the full slide deck from the webinar or watch the full presentation recording on our YouTube page
Be sure to stay tuned for registration information for the next in the series:
From Risk to Response: Designing CDRFI Solutions and Instruments, coming 29 September 2026.
