The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and UN 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.

ABOUT UNCDF

The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs). UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: (1) inclusive digital economies, which connects individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyse participation in the local economy, and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; (2) local transformative finance, which capacitates localities through fiscal decentralisation, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and (3) investment finance, which provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilisation.

About UNU-EHS

Based in Bonn, Germany, UNU-EHS conducts research on risks and adaptation related to environmental hazards and global change. The institute’s research promotes policies and programmes to reduce these risks, while taking into account the interplay between environmental and societal factors. Research areas include climate change adaptation by incorporating insurance-related approaches, environmentally-induced migration and social vulnerability, ecosystem-based solutions to adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and models and tools to analyse vulnerability and risks linked to natural hazards, with a focus on urban space and rural-urban interfaces. UNU-EHS also offers the joint Master of Science degree programme “Geography of Environmental Risks and Human Security” with the University of Bonn and hosts international PhD projects and courses on global issues of environmental risks and sustainable development. For more information, please visit eh.unu.edu and follow us on Twitter @UNUEHS