[Event Recap] Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF) Technical Talks Webinar #5 – Women in Risk Finance

The fifth webinar of the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF) Technical Talks took place virtually on October 26, 2021. The webinar featured an in-depth discussion on gender and disaster risk finance (DRF), featuring women in disaster risk finance, and panel discussion with gender experts on the business case for gender inclusion in design and implementation of financial solutions. Josefine Greber (Senior Policy Officer in the Climate Policy Division, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development [BMZ]), in her opening remarks, discussed how climate change and disasters disproportionately affect women and girls and highlighted the work that BMZ is doing to help address this challenge.  

The opening remarks were followed by 5 lightening presentations on disaster risk financing instruments by women practitioners in the field of DRF from the World Bank Group. The presenters provided overview on what is the instrument, how it works for shock response, and experience or lessons on how gender can be addressed in the instrument.  

• Hang Thu Vu (Senior Financial Sector Specialist) presented Risk Pools.  
• Naomi Cooney (Senior Financial Officer) presented Catastrophe Bonds (also called Cat Bonds).
• Clarita Kusharto (Financial Sector Specialist) presented Disaster Risk Finance Funds. 
• Fatima Dicko (Financial Sector Specialist) presented Partial Portfolio Credit Guarantee schemes. 
• Junko Onishi (Senior Social Protection Specialist) presented Safety Nets. 

After the lightening presentations, Sumati Rajput (Financial Sector Specialist, Crisis and Disaster Risk Finance, World Bank Group) interviewed three panellists from humanitarian community, private sector, and the development sector on entry points for integration of gender considerations in shock response for crisis and disaster risk finance solutions.  

• Panellist 1 - Nadia Boughaba is a Senior Project Manager for Product and Data at AXA Emerging Markets, which is AXA’s inclusive business unit targeted to close the insurance gap.  
• Panellist 2 - Tuga Alaskary is a Lead for the InsuResilience Centre of Excellence on Gender-smart Solutions, which is being established as platform for addressing the gender differential of CDRF solutions. Prior to this she worked for the World Food Programme, Asian Development Bank and African Risk Capacity. 
• Panellist 3 - Kara Siahaan is the Head of the Anticipation Hub, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies [IFRC]), was recently appointed as the new Head of the Anticipation Hub and has extensive experience in Forecast-based Action. 

The webinar was facilitated by Sumati Rajput (Financial Sector Specialist, CDRF, WBG), featuring a live poll question to understand the participants better and interact with the audience. The webinar concluded with a Q&A session. The virtual session had over 190 registrations from 51 countries, and included donors, client representatives, international organizations, private sector companies, non-governmental organizations, and academia.   

The GRiF Technical Talks feature a series of short virtual sessions, providing an overview of GRiF as well as lessons learned from innovative projects around the world. The monthly webinars are accompanied by a fact sheet and a learning brief.   

To access the resources for all the Webinars so far, click here.