This is the first session of a webinar series organized and promoted by FARM-D and the InsuResilience Global Partnership within the framework of their engagement with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Gender-responsive climate risk insurance (CRI) schemes can provide risk protection that addresses differences in women’s and men’s vulnerability to both climate risks and disaster-induced wellbeing losses. Within this framework in late 2018 the InsuResilience Global Partnership (‘the Partnership’) made a clear commitment to take proactive steps to integrate an intentional focus on gender within the execution of its mandate.
This commitment was informed by the findings of an initial background paper ‘Applying a Gender Lens to Climate Risk Finance and Insurance’ which identified a gap in the exploration of the gender-dimensions of different models of CRI. Building on this, in 2019 the Partnership commissioned a study ‘Integrating gender consideration into different models of climate risk insurance’ which explored the case for incorporating gender with a particular focus on women into different CRI schemes and provider types and identified examples of existing gender approaches.
The webinar provides insights from the study and aims at generating an interactive discussion among key stakeholders on how gender responsive solutions can be integrated into different models of climate and disaster risk finance and insurance (CDRFI). It is the first of a webinar series, laying the foundation to later webinars that will provide a deep dive into the recommendations that stem from the above-mentioned study, including an interactive discussion on how to include a gender-lens within monitoring and evaluation frameworks and investment or grant-making.
The purpose of the webinar series is to gather insights of various stakeholders to inform guidance material being developed on how to include gender-smart solutions under the InsuResilience Global Partnership broader mandate.
The overall objectives for the webinar are:
This webinar is intended for a broad range of stakeholder groups, including governments, civil society, international organizations, academia, and industry, with varying levels of understanding on the topic of gender but familiar with and/or sector experts on CDRFI.
Explore the other session of the series:
Martina Wiedmaier-Pfister is a Policy and Regulation Consultant with over 30 years of professional experience in financial systems development. She holds a Master Degree in Business Administration and advises national, regional and global projects or international development agencies, as well as central banks and supervisory authorities. She has carried out numerous assignments in Africa, Latin America and Asia, focusing on the regulatory sphere and on market development strategies of inclusive finance including insurance. She was a long-term expert for GIZ in Asia and Latin-America for eight years. She is the author of policy papers, feasibility studies and evaluations, technical studies and country diagnostics on access to finance, gender-responsible insurance, agricultural and climate risk insurance and regulatory impact studies.
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.
Christiana Adokiye George is the Gender Advisor of the African Risk Capacity based in Johannesburg since August 2018. With over 20 years experience in the field of gender and development, she has contributed to the gender equality and women empowerment goal through several international development organizations, including Femmes Africa Solidarite, World Health Organization (WHO), International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), SNV and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). At UNDP she served as the Gender Practice Leader for West and Central Africa at the Regional Service Centre in Dakar. Earlier George has served as a lecturer in her home country, Nigeria, and also as the Head of Corporate Social Responsibility in Notore Chemicals, a fertilizer company.
She holds a PhD in Gender and Development Studies from the University of South Africa, a DES in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, Geneva, and a Master of Philosophy in Translation Studies (French-English) from the University of Port Harcourt (Nigeria). She is fluent in English and French.
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.
Vitumbiko Chinoko is a policy expert with a focus on food security, nutrition and climate change with 13 years of work experience. He has designed and implemented a number of projects and worked with affected communities in Malawi. His expertise includes policy analysis and influence, partnership management, gender mainstreaming, multilateral engagement and project management.
He holds a Master Business Administration (MBA) with majors in Corporate Strategy and International Marketing. He also holds a Bachelor of Science (Geography and Rural Development). He represents global civil society in the InsuResilience Global Partnership (IGP) where and chairs Gender Technical Working Group. He is also chair of the CAADP Non-State Actors Coalition Food and Nutrition Technical Working Group.
Vitumbiko has developed policy analysis papers which have been used for climate and disaster risk financing. He coordinated the analysis of Nutrition investment for nine countries of the East and Southern Africa (ESA) region, namely: Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Following the report, he facilitated the design of a campaign called #3n3, which calls on governments, NGOs and the private sector to commit 3 per cent of the annual budget to nutrition in three years.
Currently, Vitumbiko is coordinating advocacy and partnerships activities on food, nutrition and climate change in Southern Africa for CARE International. He supports country offices to engage in Pan-African and Global processes on food, nutrition and climate change. He is also supporting country offices and partners in their preparations for the Nutrition for Growth Summit.
As Head of InsuResilience Secretariat since 2017, Astrid Zwick has been supporting the InsuResilience Global Partnership of the G20/V20 in its goal to foster climate and disaster risk finance and insurance.
From 2010 to 2016 she worked for Munich Re Group as Head of Department for “Corporate Responsibility”, being in charge of setting up and implementing its Corporate Responsibility Strategy. She also chaired the UN Environment Finance Initiative’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance Working Group between 2010 and 2012.
From 2000 to 2010 Astrid Zwick was Head of the Allianz Group Sustainability Office. During 2005-2008 she chaired the Steering Committee “Research for Sustainability” of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Between 1994 and 1999 she was in charge of policy advice on climate change at the European Commission Institute for Technological Prospective Studies.
Astrid Zwick holds a doctoral degree in climate change research (Institute for Ecological Chemistry/GSF, Helmholtz Center, Munich and Technical University, Munich-Weihenstephan) and a diploma in Geology/Paleontology (Ludwigs-Maximilians-University, Munich).