The African Risk Capacity (ARC) opened its regional consultations for West and Central Africa on September 17, 2019 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Stakes, to assess the climatic and environmental risks facing the region in order to provide an adequate response at the level of this mutual-country set up by the African Union. Present at the conference, Eva Kavuma, Director of Operations of ARC and representative of the Director General, Mohamed Beavogui, considered that the challenges of ARC are immense, ranging from the financing of the premium to the coordination of the actions of the country representatives. .

For his part, Harsen Nyambe, Director at the African Union Commission of the Environment, Climate Change, Water and Land Management Division, considered that the solutions proposed by ARC are essential to help States to dealing with catastrophes and disasters, thereby calling on States to support ARC by paying their premiums. Statements that are in line with the words of Karim Diarassouba, Director of Insurance of Côte d'Ivoire: "the ARC is an innovative scheme designed to help Member States of the African Union to cope with natural disasters ". The Director of Insurance says he expects the Abidjan workshop to highlight “new products for covering extreme weather risks”. Country approaches to risk financing

Depending on the country and the context, institutional coordination varies. “In Mali, financing the climate emergency is not easy in a tense security context,” recalls Dicko Bassa, National Coordinator. The country's budget finances various prevention tools as well as the reconstitution of the national stock (35,000 tons of which 5% is allocated to the ECOWAS stock), the challenge however remains disbursement in a context of the presence of armed groups in part of the national territory. .

In fact, “the first priority is to understand the risk and then its financing,” says Abdoulaye Noba, Director of Civil Protection, supervisor of the ARC Program in Senegal. Detailing his country's strategy to deal with floods, in a context of the presence of several services and departments involved, he notes that there have been efforts but the financing of disaster risks is not easy”. And Mr. Noba to indicate that Senegal is in the process of setting up a national strategy for the management of floods and disasters. The institutional system which provides for several scenarios from the sectoral allocations within the framework of the Finance Act is too fragmented and too transversal, adds Mr. Noba, favorable to the establishment of a central system.

For his part, Cecil Nartey, ADRifi* (Africa Disaster Risks Financing) coordinator at the AfDB, felt that it is necessary for each country to develop its own strategy. At the ECOWAS level, there is a financial reserve backed by the fund Agriculture, explains Malick Lompo, Info Stock Cell Manager at the Regional Food Security Reserve*. intervention and distribution, says Papa Zoumana Diarra, Head of Operational Planning at ARC. Relations with West and Central African Governments, concluded on the need for better national and regional coordination and the establishment of relevant tools to deal with disasters.

NOTES

• ADRiFi: Africa Disaster Risks Financing has a first program which will run between 2019 and 2023. When the scheme was launched in 2018, nine countries had joined: Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Malawi and Gambia. Adrifi is part of the AfDB's second climate change action plan (2016-2020). Its estimated cost is $3 million.
• ECOWAS food security reserve: member countries of the West African organization must participate in the pooling of at least 5% of national stocks for the benefit of the regional reserve created in 2013 by additional act.