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The Horn of Africa (HoA) is one of the world’s most vulnerable and impoverished regions. Its fragility is underscored by the prevalence of pastoralism and livestock rearing as the primary means of sustenance. These practices contribute to over one-third of the agricultural GDP in most nations and a staggering 80 percent in Djibouti and Somalia. Livestock represents not just a source of prosperity but a fundamental source of livelihood within this region. Yet when droughts strike, pastoralists...
The Global Shield Financing Facility (GSFF) combats the fragmentation of climate and disaster risk finance and insurance initiatives through active collaboration with diverse stakeholders, thereby promoting efficient resource allocation and a unified global response. Under its first pillar, which focuses on global engagements, GSFF contributes significantly to closing the protection gap, in part by partnering closely with the Global Shield against Climate Risks and its working groups, in-country...
Burkina Faso is home to a vast informal micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector that includes over 1.4 million businesses. However, of the 65,000 formal enterprises in the country, only 500 generate an annual turnover exceeding CFAF 1 billion (US$1.8 million). The country has been facing a deteriorating security landscape while also witnessing a staggering increase in internally displaced persons (IDPs). A US$12 million Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF) grant, embedded within a...
Gender gaps in several areas contribute to women being more severely affected by natural disasters than men. An estimated 80 percent of those displaced by climate change are women, and women are disproportionally represented among the 4 billion people globally who are excluded from social protection schemes. For example, only 26.3 percent of working-age women are covered by a pension scheme, compared to 38.7 percent of working-age men. Additionally, women make up 55 percent of the world’s...
The Horn of Africa (HoA), one of the world's poorest and most fragile regions, faces severe drought. The region is home to about 50 million pastoralists, who are extremely poor. Pastoralism and livestock production are the primary livelihoods in the HoA, accounting for over one-third of agricultural GDP in most countries and around 80% in Djibouti and Somalia. During droughts, livestock either perish or are sold at extremely low prices. The World Bank’s De-risking, Inclusion and Value...
Chipo Msowoya (Senior Social Protection Specialist, World Bank) remembers the day, several years ago, when he visited the district of Ntcheu in Malawi. “The project team was chased and stoned. People in the community were furious that the level of drought emergency support was so low. Their actions reflected the sheer scale of desperation in the area,” recounts Chipo. Fast forward a few years, the very same community thanked us for changing their lives. This really shows the impact of scalable...
Global studies have shown that disasters – in general – often affect women harder than men. At a recent webinar on “Women in Risk Finance," I had the privilege of listening to accomplished women leaders share their perspectives and experiences on financial resilience in the face of natural disasters and how gender plays a critical role in a country’s climate and disaster risk finance (DRF) plans. Even after years of significant economic and social progress, women continue to face barriers in...