By: M. Justice Darboe
As part of interventions in strengthening the capacity of countries to effectively manage climate shocks, stakeholders have begun a five-day review workshop on drought model customization.
The five-day review workshop is being organized within the framework of the collaboration between the African Risk Capacity (ARC) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) under the African Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme (AICRM-PAIGRC), which aims to reinforce the capacity of countries to effectively manage climate risks.
ARC is a specialized agency of the African Union established in November 2012 and it is a pan-African mutual risk management organization that offers innovative insurance against extreme weather events. ARC supports member states in mitigating the impacts of natural disasters such as drought and floods through rapid financial assistance and technical tools, including satellite weather monitoring systems and the Africa RiskView software.
The overriding goal of ARC is to transform climate risk management in member states by transferring a portion of these risks to international financial markets, which are better-positioned to absorb them.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop at the Senegambia Hotel on Monday, the government’s coordinator of ARC Mawdo Amadou Jallow explained that the five-day review workshop will revisit every aspect of customization such as rainfall data, yield data, specifically on groundnut, thedrought element and vulnerabilities, revolving around severe weather events.
“The government of The Gambia began the journey of ARC in 2014 when it signed the risk participation MoU with the ARC, paving the way for the country’s participation. It was in 2015 when The Gambia decided to pay premium with the ARC. Since then, as part of work to advance the ARC program in The Gambia, the customization of ARC continues on drought model,” Mr. Jallow further explained.
According to him, the motivation of the government is to protect the lives and livelihoods of the people it serves.
“That’s why to protect vulnerabilities, government decided to take out insurance with the ARC Since 2015. The Gambia has been participating in all the pools. In 2022, we received a pay-out, although small, it was a replica portfolio of US$332,000, half of which went to WFP to implement complementary programmes to government’s ARC program, which we implemented cash transfers in the same communities but different people at the same time. So, that makes this program very important,” added the government coordinator of the program.
Mr. Jalow pointed out that there exist five elements to customization vis-à-vis the rainfall, yield, drought vulnerability, RTP and contingency plan.
Speaking earlier, the Country Engagement Manager for West and Central Africa, Mr. Freddy Kakou, described the workshop as important as, according to him, it will help the participants review the ARC model to be able to update the risk profile of The Gambia.
He thanked IFAD for the partnership.
For his part, Pa Ousman Jarju of IFAD said this program is part of the Africa Integrated Climate Risk Management Program funded by the Green Climate Fund, AFD, WFP, Africa Risk Capacity, adding that the program has three components namely; risk preparedness, risk reduction and risk transfer. He pointed out that the ARC is jointly implementing with WFP Component Three, which is mainly on sovereign risk transfer.
“We also have certain components of risk reduction. This program is to support the country, particularly in risk financing in addition to capacity building, insurance and risk transfer,” stated Mr. Jarju.
“In partnership with ROOTS and the agriculture Ministry, we will be supporting this program to enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers in this country and all other participating countries,” he promised.
