AXA Climate and Howden design parametric flood insurance for Togo

AXA Climate, the specialist weather, climate and parametric risk transfer unit of the AXA Group, and broker Howden are working together to implement a parametric flood insurance arrangement in Togo, which is expected to cover three cities and over 700,000 inhabitants of them.

The project has been approved to support pre-arranged disaster financing and flood adaptation solutions for cities in Togo and will launch in three municipalities.

The InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF) is co-funding the implementation of the index-based flood insurance solution, with this funding announced at an event held in Dubai at COP28 last weekend.

It’s designed to enhance the financial capacity of the municipalities in Togo when a major flood disaster occurs, by activating a predefined contingency plan, to support disaster response and assist vulnerable affected populations.

“Climate risk insurance, particularly when part of comprehensive disaster risk management planning, is a decisive tool for supporting the resilience of vulnerable populations,” explained Dr. Annette Detken, Head of the InsuResilience Solutions Fund.

“As a committed climate insurer, the science of adaptation is really part of our DNA. We are honoured to help these cities be better prepared for future floods,” added Karina Whalley, Head of Public Sector at AXA Climate.

AXA Climate and Howden have worked with Togo-based non-Governmental organisation Pionniers en Action pour le Développement Intégré à l’Environnement (PADIE) to implement the solution.

“A series of workshops will be organized with municipal policymakers, technical experts and the community to identify precisely the priority adaptation measures and contingency actions that insurance payouts could finance,” explained Emile Atigaku, Executive Director of PADIE.

Howden is also going to provide co-financing of $100,000 to pay for insurance premiums for the first year of the scheme.

“We are pleased to accelerate the resilience of the three cities through this contribution,” Stuart Martin, the lead for parametric insurance in Howden’s risk and resilience department said.

“We are fortunate to have a strong relationship with the three cities, which will allow this project to be locally led and ambitious,” added Eliot Pernet, project lead at AXA Climate.