UN agencies launch disaster risk financing platform at COP31

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UN disaster risk financing at COP31

Highlights

UN agencies launched the UN Disaster Risk Financing Platform at COP31 to make humanitarian funding more predictable and mobilize early crisis response with private sector support.
Pre-arranged financing constitutes less than 2% of global humanitarian funding, with WFP securing nearly $211 million this year to protect up to 9.6 million people in over 50 countries.
The platform unites FAO, IOM, OCHA, UNICEF, UNHCR, and WFP, aiming to lower costs and scale disaster risk financing through pooled data and insurance industry collaboration.

Platform targets earlier disaster funding

As reported by UN News, the new UN Disaster Risk Financing Platform is designed to make humanitarian response funding more predictable, increase money available for early action during major crises and improve the impact of existing resources by combining them with private sector support.

Lisa Doughten, Director of Financing and Outreach at OCHA, says disasters are becoming more predictable while financing to act ahead of them remains slow and fragmented. The platform brings together agencies' expertise, pooled data and joint solutions so predictive analysis can be linked to funding and early warnings can translate into anticipatory action.

Working with the insurance industry and financial markets is central to the model as the agencies seek to keep costs down while scaling financing. The initiative has already produced initial results, with support from WFP's specialist insurance teams helping OCHA and UNICEF put insurance policies in place for their anticipatory action programmes.

Humanitarian and market implications

UNICEF Global Practice Director for Climate and Environment Gernot Laganda says strong forecasts can provide days, and sometimes weeks, to act before floods, storms or heatwaves put children at risk. He says insurance helps ensure money is available to respond to those warnings, even when several disasters happen in the same year.

Pre-arranged financing still accounts for less than 2% of global humanitarian financing, highlighting the scale of the funding gap the platform is trying to address. WFP, described as the UN's largest user of this type of 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.

UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Operations Antón Leis García says earlier action can save lives, protect livelihoods and reduce further displacement for refugees exposed to climate risks. The platform brings together FAO, IOM, OCHA, UNICEF, UNHCR and WFP, creating a broader institutional framework for disaster risk financing across the humanitarian sector.

We recently wrote about Malaysia's fiscal buffers as MARC Ratings urged stronger financial resilience against climate shocks and other crises.

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