BACKGROUND
Gender-responsive Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) seeks to provide financial protection that addresses differences in women and men’s vulnerability to both climate and disaster-induced losses and damages both economically and socially. Currently the InsuResilience Global Partnership (the Partnership) Gender Working Group has identified the lack of sufficient sex-disaggregated data of clients, staff and members, and a lack of data on the gender differential impacts of CDRFI coverage and payouts of existing solutions; including lack of collection and analysis of information of rural poor men and women trained in financial literacy, accessing training and use of insurance products and services.
Furthermore, it identified scarce guidance to support the effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the impact of such schemes, as well as a gap in the documentation of existing examples of good practice. This is in a context where there is a clear commitment from donors and implementing partners, but a recognised knowledge gap exists in how gender-responsive M&E could both demonstrate and improve the impact of solutions towards addressing gender-specific differences in vulnerability.
As such, there is an opportunity for members of the Partnership and the wider CDRFI community to share examples of existing gender-responsive approaches in M&E of CDRFI activities, as well as challenges and opportunities to improve measurement of gender impacts at different phases of the programme cycle in the implementation of CDRFI. Further, there are very specific gender considerations needed at diverse phases of the data collection process. These range from setting baselines, the design of indicators, methodologies for data collection and ongoing measurements, to analysing and using M&E outputs to enhance the gender-responsiveness of solutions and to clearly demonstrate impact for all groups of people.
Only through a comprehensive and gender-responsive approach to monitoring the performance (during implementation) and evaluating results (during implementation and after closing) of CDRFI interventions would diverse stakeholders be able to understand whether the actions taken are effectively responding to the vulnerabilities of all sexes and are having the intended impact.
OBJECTIVES
This webinar builds on the “LIVE TALK 01: Integrating gender-responsive strategies into climate and disaster risk finance and insurance solutions“, which was held on 3 June 2020.
The objectives of the LIVE TALK 02 are:
This session is divided into two panel discussions:
Session 1: Discussion on existing practices, challenges, lessons learned, support tools and gaps in the M&E of CDRFI schemes at different phases of scheme design and implementation. The discussion will focus on data needs in the design of CDRFI schemes; gender and sex-disaggregated data collection priorities at each stage of the project life cycle, including what indicators can support gender-responsive M&E. Moreover, panellists will explore how innovative new approaches to data collection can support gender-responsive M&E.
Session 2: Discussion on the different methodological approaches that can be used to measure the gender impact of the diverse types of CDRFI solutions and macro, meso and micro-level CRI scheme payouts. This session will consider impact measurement lessons from gender-responsive national adaptation and resilience strategic frameworks and other policy areas.
For more information on the previous Live Talk ‘Integrating gender-responsive strategies into climate and disaster risk finance and insurance solutions’, please follow the links to a recording and a report.
Explore the other session of the series:
Leona Lillian Abban is the Country Manager of MicroEnsure Ghana and has been since February 2020. She had previously worked with MicroEnsure for 9 years, serving in the capacity of an Account Manager for her first three years, and thereafter as the Clients Relations Manager. Leona began her Insurance career with a general insurance company in Ghana called Prime Insurance Company Limited. She worked in various work streams including Finance, Underwriting and Business Development before she moved on to MicroEnsure after 4 years. As a Clients Relations Manager, she led a team who were responsible for establishing and maintaining excellent relationships with their corporate clients, while also ensuring growth in revenue of the businesses.
In 2018, the Ghanaian Insurance Regulator appointed her an Associate Member of the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) Incubation Laboratory. Together with the National Insurance Commission and other key industry players, they explored ways by which insurance penetration could be deepened in Ghana. Leona continues to use her expert knowledge and experience in microinsurance at speaking and panelling sessions, and has been a thought leader at the Ghana Insurance Brokers Association’s 2018 Conference, the 2018 Pan-African Bancassurance Conference and the 13th Consultative Forum – which was jointly organized by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the A2ii.
In February 2019, she was appointed a Member of the Global Diplomacy Laboratory, brought together by the German Federal Foreign Office, the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Stiftung Mercator and the Global Leadership Academy of the GIZ. She joins worldwide diplomats and global professionals to explore and recommend frameworks on various world issues.
Anita has over 20 years of experience working with the Canadian government and the private sector. She holds a Masters Degree in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa (Canada) and a Bachelor of Arts, Chartered Accountancy from the University of Waterloo (Canada). She is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant (Canada) and is a certified Project Management Practitioner and Change Management Practitioner. She has carried out a number of assignments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as an assignment with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome. Her areas of focus include gender equality, gender lens investing, climate finance and results-based management. Anita has worked with multiple Canadian government departments, including the Department of Women and Gender Equality, Health Canada, Global Affairs Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada. She is currently the co-chair of the InsuResilience Global Partnership Gender Working Group.
Toby Behrmann has over 20 years of experience structuring and deploying financial solutions in emerging economies. Prior to Global Parametrics, he started his career at AIG, before running his own direct to consumer insurance agency and then starting up a financial services administrator serving countries such as Nepal and Myanmar. Toby is considered a leading expert in disaster risk finance, how it can be used to protect the most vulnerable against the economic effects of climate change and how to make sure that no one is left behind.
Over the past 18 years, Medhin Fissha Mekonnen has worked with various organizations at the capacity of project/program development and has experience in resilience building, climate finance, financial inclusion (weather index insurance including the R4 program, savings, micro-credit), food security and social protection with sound technical expertise in program design, implementation and management, designing and managing researches, safeguards, gender & social inclusion and monitoring and evaluation. She is also a well networked professional and has experience in building strategic partnerships with policy-makers, multilateral and bilateral organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector. Additionally, she was serving as the technical focal person for the Vulnerable 20 Group during Ethiopian Presidency of the forum from 2016 to 2018.
Currently, Medhin Fissha Mekonnen is working with Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) seconded to Ministry of Finance of Ethiopia as a Gender and Safeguards Specialist. Previously, she has worked with the InsuResilience Global Partnership Secretariat as an advisor. She has also worked with the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA), which is a consortium of humanitarian alliances (CARE, Oxfam, Save the Children, and World Vision) and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). In addition to her professional experience, Medhin Fissha Mekonnen holds a Master of Science degree in Resource and Environmental Economics and Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.
Sven Harmeling works with CARE International since 2013 as Global Policy Lead Climate Change and Resilience. In that function he leads and coordinates CARE’s international climate policy work and provides advice to CARE offices both in developed and developing countries. He has been active in the international climate policy space for about 15 years, with particular experience in issues around adaptation, loss and damage, and climate finance. Sven Harmeling holds a diploma in geography, environmental economics and political sciences from the University of Bonn, Germany. He is also a voluntary member of the board of directors of CAN International, CAN Europe and Germanwatch.
Andrew Hobbs studies how droughts, floods, and other disasters affect people, and develops tools to reduce the impact of climate change on farmers. He focuses in particular on how the costs of climate shocks are distributed within households. He is currently working on combining machine learning and satellite data for faster and more accurate detection of disasters and on insurance to sustain women’s businesses through droughts in Northern Kenya. Before entering academia, Andrew studied climate change mitigation and adaptation policy at Climate Policy Initiative in San Francisco and Mozambique.
Vositha Wijenayake works as the executive director of SLYCAN Trust. Vositha specializes in public international law with a focus on international environmental law, refugee law, and UN human rights law. She has over a decade of experience in working on climate change, at national and international level, and is a member of the National Expert Committee on Climate Change Adaptation of the Ministry of Environment of Sri Lanka. Vositha has been a delegate of the Sri Lankan government’s delegation to the UNFCCC negotiations since 2016, negotiating on issues related to compliance, climate change adaptation, loss and damage, gender. She is a consultant to the UNFCCC Secretariat, a member of the Expert Group on Oceans and Climate Change of the UNFCCC, and contributor to the NAP Technical Working Group under the UNFCCC. Vositha co-chairs the Impacts Working Group of the Insuresilience Global Partnership, and her most recent research includes work on national adaptation plans, the NDC review process in countries in Asia and Africa, gender responsiveness in climate policy processes, and climate induced migration and displacement.
Katherine has considerable international experience working in private sector development, gender and women’s financial inclusion, including a strong focus on insurance. Most recently Katherine has provided gender expertise to the InsuResilience Global Partnership on gender and climate risk insurance coauthoring two publications on the theme: Applying a Gender Lens to Climate Risk Finance and Insurance, and Integrating Gender Considerations into Different Models of CRI. This builds on previous technical expertise as a long term gender and financial inclusion consultant for United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) where she led the development and guided the implementation of its regional gender strategies. This work included engaging with financial service providers and developing a self-assessment tool for financial service providers in Myanmar to enhance their institutional gender policies and practices. On behalf of UNCDF Katherine provided technical support to members of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion in the development of the Denarau Action Plan – the AFI Network Commitment to Gender and Women’s Financial Inclusion and in turn, the development of working group guidance notes on the themes of Sex-disaggregated Financial Inclusion data, Integrating Gender and Women’s Financial Inclusion into National Financial Inclusion Strategies, and Policy Responses to Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/ Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT). On behalf of GIZ in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Women’s World Banking and the Access to Insurance Initiative, Katherine has also co-authored the publication “Mainstreaming Gender and Targeting Women in Inclusive Insurance: Perspectives and Emerging Lessons A Compendium of Technical Notes and Case Studies”. Katherine began her career as a management trainee at the private international health care and insurance company BUPA. She has an MSc International Development (cum laude) from the University of Amsterdam and a BA (hons) Anthropology from the University of Durham.
Ms Emily Coleman has over 17-years’ experience in international development at UN institutions, 15 years of which she has been working on agricultural insurance. Currently she is the agricultural insurance senior expert for the Sida-financed INSURED programme, which is implemented by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), through the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM). Ms. Coleman’s experience in agricultural insurance spans project management, implementation, research and development, capacity building, and technical assistance across different regions. Her field experience has been focused on Africa and Asia, including Cambodia, China, Rwanda, Senegal, and Zambia. Ms. Coleman has co-authored international publications on agricultural insurance which include a review of global experiences, guidance for governments and donors, and findings on remote sensing for index insurance development. She has been regularly called upon to present at different international fora on the topics and to contribute to global policy dialogue such as to the G8 and G20. Ms. Coleman has designed, coordinated, and provided technical support to a number of donor- and IFAD-funded initiatives on insurance and financial inclusion.