Netherlands bolsters Africa’s climate resilience with disaster financing pledge to AfDB
Representatives from the Netherlands and the African Development Bank Group this week discussed further details of the Dutch government’s recent $27 million financial commitment to the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Program Multi-Donor Trust Fund.
With this commitment, signed earlier this month, the Netherlands becomes the sixth contributor to the Fund, operated by the Bank Group to boost Africa’s resilience and responsiveness to climate shocks.
The Africa Disaster Risk Financing Program (ADRiFI) Multi-Donor Trust Fund bolsters drought insurance protection for African countries to mitigate the negative impacts of climate-related extremes such as cyclones, flooding, and drought. Working in collaboration with the African Risk Capacity, the funds will support the Bank’s promotion of parametric insurance and other climate risk management instruments in Africa.
During discussions on the sideline of the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, Mark Zellenrath, Director for Multilateral Institutions and Human Rights at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bank Vice President Dr. Beth Dunford welcomed the new partnership.
“This Dutch government commitment to the Trust Fund will help bring additional protection to millions of the continent’s most vulnerable people threatened by climate disaster,” said Dunford, responsible for agriculture, human and social development at the Bank.
Mark Zellenrath said, “The Kingdom of the Netherlands is proud of becoming a new donor to the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme and providing additional funding to reduce the protection gap in Africa and make parametric insurance solutions accessible to those at the frontlines of climate change across the African continent.”
The Bank has invested more than $100 million and supported 16 African countries to access sovereign insurance and financial protection against climate hazards.
Since its establishment in 2019, the ADRiFi program has provided financial protection against severe droughts and tropical cyclones to more than six million people, significantly bolstering resilience in vulnerable communities.
Apart from the Netherlands, other donors to the ADRiFi Multi-Donor Trust Fund are the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, and Norway.
