UN agencies on Thursday launched a joint platform at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, that aims to secure access to more than $3 billion in risk financing to protect 75 million people and their livelihoods from climate shocks and natural hazards by 2030.
"Disasters are increasingly predictable, yet the financing needed to act ahead of them remains slow and fragmented," said Lisa Doughten, Director of Financing and Outreach at UN aid coordination office, OCHA .
The platform aims to:
- make disaster response funding more predictable,
- increase the money available for early action during major crises
- and maximize the impact of every dollar further by combining existing resources with private sector support
Agencies will share expertise, pool data and coordinate joint solutions, pairing predictive analysis with funds so that early warnings can be turned into anticipatory action. Working with the insurance industry and financial markets will be key to keeping costs down as financing scales up.
The initiative has already delivered its first results: with support from WFP 's specialist insurance teams, OCHA and UNICEF have put in place insurance policies that provide a financial safety net for their anticipatory action programmes.
"A robust forecast can give us days, sometimes even weeks, to act before a flood, storm or heatwave puts children at risk," said Gernot Laganda, UNICEF Global Practice Director for Climate and Environment.
"Insurance ensures we have the money available to act on that warning, even in a year when several disasters come at once."
Significant gaps
Yet pre-arranged financing still accounts for less than two per cent of global humanitarian financing, far short of what is needed.
UN emergency food agency, WFP, the UN's largest user of such financing, has helped secure nearly $211 million in pre-arranged finance this year to protect up to 9.6 million people in more than 50 countries.
"For millions of refugees already on the frontlines of the climate crisis, acting early can save lives, protect livelihoods and prevent further displacement," said Antón Leis García, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Operations.
The UN Disaster Risk Financing (DRF) Platform brings together the Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO ), the International Organization for Migration ( IOM ), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP)
