Panama City, Panama. March 12, 2021. The Directorate of Investments, Concessions and State Risks (DICRE) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) of Panama, and CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility), with the support of the World Bank, held a technical workshop on CCRIF’s parametric insurance products, held virtually on March 11 and 12, for government officials responsible for disaster risk management.
The objectives of the workshop were to deepen the knowledge of the technical, financial, and institutional aspects of the sovereign insurance products offered by CCRIF SPC, review the technical aspects of its excess rainfall and earthquake models, and learn about innovative tools for monitoring natural hazard events such as WeMAp. Accordingly, participants will carry out practical group exercises to better understand the CCRIF policies and models and their characteristics.
Mr. Jorge Luis Almengor, Vice Minister of Economy and Finance, and Mr. Isaac Anthony, Chief Executive Officer of CCRIF SPC, opened the workshop. Vice Minister Almengor pointed out “the importance of maintaining financial instruments, such as those offered by CCRIF SPC, within the Strategic Framework for Financial Management of Disaster Risks as a key to advance towards sustainable development.”
For his part, Mr. Anthony highlighted the importance of collaborating with the Government of Panama and the World Bank to deliver this workshop to key government officials responsible for disaster risk financing. “We believe this workshop will help contribute to the implementation of Panama's innovative fiscal resilience framework,” Mr. Anthony stated.
Since 2018, the Republic of Panama has purchased parametric insurance policies for excess rainfall, receiving a payout from CCRIF SPC in the amount of US$2,670,566 due to the rains that occurred during Tropical Cyclone Eta in November 2020.
Since its creation in 2007, CCRIF SPC has made 50 payouts totaling US$200 million to 16 member governments. Central American governments (excluding Belize) have benefited from 7 of these payouts, totaling approximately US$38.5 million, or 20% of the total payouts to date.
About CCRIF SPC:
CCRIF SPC is a segregated portfolio company, owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean. It limits the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes and excess rainfall events to Caribbean and Central American governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a parametric insurance policy is triggered. It is the world’s first regional fund utilising parametric insurance, giving member governments the unique opportunity to purchase earthquake, hurricane and excess rainfall catastrophe coverage with lowest-possible pricing. CCRIF was developed under the technical leadership of the World Bank and with a grant from the Government of Japan. It was capitalized through contributions to a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) by the Government of Canada, the European Union, the World Bank, the governments of the UK and France, the Caribbean Development Bank and the governments of Ireland and Bermuda, as well as through membership fees paid by participating governments. In 2014, a second MDTF was established by the World Bank to support the development of CCRIF SPC’s new products for current and potential members and facilitate the entry of Central American countries and additional Caribbean countries. The MDTF currently channels funds from various donors, including: Canada, through Global Affairs Canada; the United States, through the Department of the Treasury; the European Union, through the European Commission, and Germany, through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and KfW. Additional financing has been provided by the Caribbean Development Bank, with resources provided by Mexico; the Government of Ireland; and the European Union through its Regional Resilience Building Facility managed by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and The World Bank.
