Catch-up on the Counter Crisis podcast series

Author: Centre for Disaster Protection

Photos: kh.rakib via Shutterstock, Mario Tama and John Wessels via Getty Images

Counter Crisis, a three-part podcast series by Centre for Disaster Protection and produced by Tortoise Media, is now available to download in full across the major podcast platforms.

Across three weeks spanning March and April 2024, the Centre published a three-part podcast series, Counter Crisis. The episodes delve into pre-arranged financing for crises, from the inadequacy and inequity in its availability to the potential and limitations of new initiatives to protect the climate-vulnerable, as well as the fitness of current financing mechanisms to help protect the world from the catastrophic impacts of pandemics.

The podcast was produced by Tortoise Media with host, Jeevan Vasagar, Editor, Our Planet, guiding us through the complex issues, and was joined by a guests from the Centre, as well as sector experts.

Episode One: The State of Pre-Arranged Financing

In episode one, Ekhosuehi Iyahen, Secretary General of the Insurance Development Forum, and the Centre’s Associate Director Lydia Poole, discussed the complexities and challenges surrounding global disaster planning and financing. They explored what needs to change to ensure the most vulnerable communities receive the protection they need. As stated in our report The State Of Pre-Arranged Financing 2023, only 2.7% of total crisis financing is pre-arranged, while just 3.7% of that goes to the low income countries.

“I think this is a new frontier for disaster response, that we need to ask different and better questions about our understanding of how disasters impact people and therefore what your response should be and therefore how much funding you need available at what time.” Lydia Poole, Associate Director, Centre for Disaster Protection.

Click here to listen to episode one

Episode Two: Can finance save climate-vulnerable countries from drowning?

In episode two, the Centre’s Research Lead, Shakira Mustapha, was joined by Michai Robertson, a Research Fellow in climate and sustainability at the global affairs think tank ODI, to discuss how the Loss and Damage Fund will work, and how it fits together with other ongoing efforts to protect poor and vulnerable people from the adverse effects of climate change. They explored pre-arranged and parametric financing, debt pause clauses, and “governing loss”. 

“Insurance as a solution is [not always] the most cost effective or politically feasible way to address all climate induced losses and damages. Donors themselves are recognising that temporary support in the form of subsidies is insufficient, and [should] be part of a longer term solution. [The sector] is also recognising that there are other instruments for pre-arranged financing, not just insurance, such as contingent grants and highly concessional loans from multilateral development banks,” Shakira Mustapha, Research Lead, Centre for Disaster Protection. 

Click here to listen to episode two

Episode Three: Are we ready for the next pandemic?

The series concluded with episode three, where the Centre’s Lead Risk Finance Advisor Cristina Stefan, and Ruchir Agarwal, Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, discussed how we can better prepare for the next pandemic, after witnessing rich countries hoarding protective gear and vaccines, elbowing poor countries aside in the rush to secure medical equipment for their own populations.

“Where I think the world has a better understanding, is that a collective response is needed for problems like the pandemic is one, there is a much richer understanding that pandemics are a global security issue, an economic issue, and not just a public health issue.

A lot of work has been going on increasing access to health, universal health for all, and a lot of that work is about getting systems working within health systems and within countries. But when we talk about pandemics and economics, the logic of it is very different,” Ruchir Agarwal, Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School.

Click here to listen to episode 3

The podcast is available on all the major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

To discuss any of the aspects raised in this article, or for further information about the work of the Centre, please get in touch.