Suva/Bonn —The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) have pledged to strengthen cooperation on shared objectives through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed today.
The two agencies are joint implementing partners, alongside UNDP, for the flagship Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme (PICAP), which developed and launched the Pacific region’s first disaster risk parametric micro-insurance product in August 2021.
The MoU will enable enhanced cooperation between UNCDF and UNU-EHS by leveraging the expertise of both agencies to maximize the impact of development initiatives.
UNCDF Executive Secretary, Preeti Sinha, said: “The coming together of UNU-EHS and UNCDF is an exemplary model of partnership between two UN agencies to build on each other’s strength- UNCDF offering last mile blended financing models to unlock public and private capital, digital innovation and delivery and UNU bringing its academic and research expertise, rich experience of working in the climate adaptation space.”
The two agencies are collaborating on a joint research project in Fiji’s Northern Division with the University of the South Pacific (USP) and University of West Indies (UWI) to improve climate and disaster risk insurance products in the Pacific and Caribbean regions.
Lessons learned from the project will inform global best practices and guide insurance product development.
Discussions are underway to expand the partnership between the two agencies beyond the Pacific to Caribbean and Africa, while new products are being designed in response to the demands and needs of Pacific markets.
The partnership will augment these efforts in the areas of advocacy and research, design and distribution of literacy materials, introduction of disaster risk financing instruments and supporting entry into new markets.
UNU Vice-Rector in Europe (UNU-ViE) and Director of the UNU-EHS, Professor Dr Shen Xiaomeng, said: “The MoU between UNU-EHS and UNCDF will enable both agencies to collaborate in a strategic and systematic way in the fields of common interests such as climate change adaptation, risk assessment and disaster risk financing instruments.
“It will increase the impact of both agencies’ work by joining forces with each other in the endeavor of supporting the most vulnerable people.”
PICAP is funded by the Governments of New Zealand, Australia and Luxembourg through the Drua Incubator embedded within the Fijian Government’s Ministry of Economy.
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For more information, visit the UNU-EHS website or contact:
Arianna Flores-Corral, Communication Associate, UNU-EHS
flores-corral@ehs.unu.edu
+49-151-2672-1390
Sheldon Chanel, Communications Officer, UNCDF/UNDP Pacific
sheldon.chanel@undp.org
https://www.uncdf.org/
