The African Risk Capacity (ARC) has announced the launch of an outbreak & epidemic (O&E) solution for African governments, in an effort to finance the protection against, and control of, diseases.
ARC provides parametric sovereign disaster risk insurance and other support to African nations, and is looking to expand its offerings outside of the impact of drought and extreme weather events, after African Finance Ministers called on the organisation to develop a program for disease outbreaks.
African countries are extremely vulnerable to outbreaks of deadly diseases, which can rapidly hit epidemic levels that often result in severe social and economic impairment.
Launched in Acca, Ghana, between September 13th to September 15th, ARC’s new O&E insurance solution is designed to improve the ability of African countries to respond to disease outbreaks, ultimately limiting the loss of life and the financial and economic impact.
ARC’s lead advisor for O&E, Robert Kwame Agyarko, commented; “This launch marks an important step in a programme that has the potential to provide our continent with meaningful support and progress in controlling and minimizing the damage done by disease outbreaks. We cannot afford to wait until after disaster strikes – Africa must prepare, and we must invest in saving lives.”
During the launch and technical workshop, ARC, alongside the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), discussed which disease pathogens or pathogen families should be covered by the pilot program.
The conclusion was to focus on diseases that have the most severe impact, and which authorities and individuals are less aware of, owing to a lack of occurrence of outbreaks. This includes diseases such as Ebola, meningitis, yellow fever, dengue fever, SARS, MERS, Marburg virus, and smallpox, explains ARC.
“Africa is under the threat of infectious diseases like Ebola and Marburg that can take hold and spread viciously, endangering lives and seriously harming security, the economy and public order.
“Had Ebola been identified and the response begun two months earlier, the total number of deaths could have been reduced by 80%. We can never allow that to happen again. Together with all our partners, we will be able to establish the effective and sustainable solutions Africa needs,” continued Agyarko.
The pilot program for the new O&E solution is just beginning, and Uganda and Guinea have been selected as the first two countries to be offered the product.
“These two locations were selected based on regional balance and their previous experience with epidemic-prone diseases of international concern. ARC will be working with Metabiota and Health Systems Consult Limited (HSCL) to design the pilot with the Ministries of Health of Guinea and Uganda,” explains ARC.
Organisations such as ARC provide poorer, vulnerable parts of the world with access to much needed insurance protection against natural catastrophe exposures. The model has been successful, so far, and it’s promising to see that ARC is eager to expand its remit, ultimately providing more and more African’s with access to valuable insurance protection.
