Foundations of Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) and Impactful Civil Society Engagement

This free, self-paced eLearning course gives a profound introduction to climate and disaster risk finance and insurance (CDRFI) and the political processes surrounding it. The course presents conceptual and policy frameworks, laying the ground for CDRFI, and shows how approaches in this context are functioning in practice. It further demonstrates how CDRFI can be integrated in national policy frameworks and provides insight on CSO engagement and advocacy strategies at the national, regional and international levels. Finally, it sheds light on potential benefits, limitations and challenges of CDRFI solutions. By the end of the course, learners should have more resources to engage in a meaningful and critical way in CDRFI programs. The main target group of this online course are civil society organizations that want to work in the field of CDRFI, but everyone interested in the topic is welcome to join this learning journey free of charge.

Course overview

• Module 1: An introduction to climate disaster risk finance and insurance (Time required: ca. 4h)
• Module 2: Climate Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance in practice (Time required: ca. 4h 25min)
• Module 3: CDRFI integration in national policy frameworks and CSO advocacy (Time required: ca. 2h)
• Module 4: CSO Engagement and advocacy strategies at the regional and international levels (Time required: ca. 2h 10min)
• Module 5: CDRFI potential benefits, limitations, and challenges (Time required: ca. 3h 5 min)
  

Read the full course syllabus.

More information

The course consists of five modules, each comprised of several smaller units. The units feature mixed media content, including expert videos and case studies, and provide additional reading to dig deeper into to the different topics. After each unit, students take a short quiz and are invited to engage with fellow learners in the course forum to reflect on their personal experience. After successful completion of the course, students will be awarded an official, personalized and verifiable certificate issued by MCII and the United-Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS).

The Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII), which produced this course, is a leading think-tank on climate change and insurance, and is a forum for insurance-related expertise applied to climate change issues – under the vision that insurance solutions are an essential part of a wider climate risk management strategy. Thus, people who are currently not able to access or afford insurance against extreme weather events should be enabled to protect their livelihoods against the negative impacts of climate change. MCII was started as a charitable organization by insurers, research institutes and NGOs in April 2005 in response to the growing realization that insurance solutions can play a role in adaptation to climate change, as suggested in the Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. MCII is hosted at the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS).

This course is an output of the MCII project “Multi-Actor Partnership (MAP) on Climate and Disaster Risk Financing and Preparedness in the Context of the InsuResilience Global Partnership”, and was developed in consultation with the project’s partners. MAPs on CDRFI aim to strengthen the technical understanding of CDRFI solutions and spur an effective collaboration between civil society organizations, governments and private sector stakeholders at the national and international level. Throughout the project (2019-2022), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Development and Economic Cooperation (BMZ) with support from Engagement Global, MAPs have been initiated and partially established in the Caribbean, Lao PDR, Malawi, Madagascar, the Philippines, Senegal and Sri Lanka through local project partners with support from CARE Germany, MCII and Germanwatch.