Session Partners:  Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI), InsuResilience Global Partnership (IGP)

Countries across the globe are suffering from increased frequency and severity of climate and geophysical shocks in recent decades. Vulnerabilities differ across geographies depending on hazard and exposure. While countries are accelerating to invest in infrastructure development to uplift the livelihood of its people, accounting for resilience of infrastructure is critical to not lock in risks. Therefore, reinforcing the infrastructure to withstand the shocks is of utmost importance and therefore investment in resilience is essential.

Countries are at different stages of development and by strategically recalibrating their focus, DFIs can position themselves as critical players in building resilience in those economies. Resilience may bear an extra cost component on the already strained budgets of low- and middle-income countries.  DFIs can play a catalyzers’ role to fund initial financing requirements of long-term infrastructure investment and help design attractive financial instruments to crowd in private investments. Also, DFIs have a pivotal role in implementation of sovereign disaster risk financing strategies by devising and supporting solutions like risk pools and insurance programmes. Disaster risk finance strategies allow countries to combine different disaster risk finance instruments strategically and cost-effectively to respond quickly to disasters through pre-arranged financing;  hence building financial resilience in the overall infrastructure ecosystem.

In short, DFIs can help channel private investments into new technologies, research and help emerging markets accelerate their efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals.

The session will explore different types of challenges and opportunities DFIs and IOs have in infrastructure resilience. The session will also investigate ways to leverage experiences and expertise of other DFIs to overcome barriers and create opportunities for improved practices. The discussion is led by a high-level panel of representatives from DFIs and IOs from different regions.

The session will also be marked by the announcement of CDRI’s multi partner trust fund, Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund (IRAF).