Joint Statement calling for G7 action on disaster risk finance
Indonesia, December 2004 tsunami aftermath, October 2005. Credit: Daniel Cima / American Red Cross
We, the signatories of this joint statement, believe the time has come to bring about a step change in the way the world responds to and pays for crises. We commit to work together, bringing our diverse perspectives and expertise, as well as our resources, to help create a new approach to crisis financing that better predicts crises, prepares finances in advance, and ensures more people are protected.
With a rapidly warming climate, significant population shifts and increasing hunger and conflict, it is clear that disaster risks are rising globally. As the world looks to the future recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must learn the lessons from this devastating crisis and strengthen our international systems to ensure we are adequately prepared for what is to come. We welcome the inclusion of disaster risk financing as a priority area for action for the UK’s G7 Presidency. We endorse the work of the Crisis Lookout coalition and their global consultation that has sought to provide practical, achievable, and ambitious proposals for the G7 to consider.
We stand ready to work with the G7 and invite them to agree three critical solutions:
Predict crises better by creating a new ‘Crisis Lookout’ function to increase engagement with risk information and support the prioritisation of crises globally, regionally, and nationally.
Prepare response better by agreeing to make pre-arranged finance the primary way to pay for crises, so that funding gets where it is needed faster, with greater impact.
Protect vulnerable people better by supporting an initial group of ‘pathfinder’ countries to ensure that we ‘leave no one behind’ through better prediction of, and coordinated protection from, crises.
These three areas of action together represent a vital shift in the international system and complement the ongoing efforts of countries and forums, such as the V20, to avert, minimise and address disaster risks. We continue to strongly support and draw on the important work of existing multi-stakeholder partnerships, including InsuResilience and Risk Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP).
Government and Representatives
Hon. Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance and Cooperation, Government of Ethiopia
Hon. Lamin B. Dibba, Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, Government of The Gambia
Ato Sufian Ahmed, Former Ethiopian Finance Minister
Bert Koenders, Former Foreign Minister of the Netherlands and Special Envoy to the World Bank
Multilateral Institutions
African Risk Capacity (ARC)
International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP)
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
World Food Programme (WFP)
UN Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)
Scaling up Nutrition Alliance (SUN)
INFORM
Civil Society Organisations
Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR)
Global Network of Civil Society Organisations on Disaster Reduction (GNDR)
Environmental and Rural Mediation Centre (ENVIRUN)
Refugee Welfare Association Cameroon
Marine Ecosystems Protected Areas (MEPA) Trust, Antigua & Aruba
Jordan Heritage Friends Association
Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters
Farmers Voice, Bangladesh
Participatory Development Action Programme, Bangladesh
Implementing Partners and Programmes
Give-Directly
START Network
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Oxfam
Save the Children International
MercyCorps
Christian Aid
Private Sector
Denis Duverne, Chairman of the Board of Directors AXA
Insurance Development Forum
The Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center at the Atlantic Council
Global Parametrics
Global Women Leaders
Academia and Technical Organisations
Mark Plant, Chief Operating Officer, Center for Global Development (CGD)
Centre for Disaster Protection
Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
Professor Paul Collier, Oxford University
Owen Barder, Chief Executive, Precision Agriculture Development
Lord Rees of Ludlow & Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Co-Directors, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD)
International Institute for Environment & Development (IIED)