Leaders call for tenfold Increase in proportion of international crisis finance that is pre-arranged to meet the cost of future crises
30 January 2025 – The High-Level Panel on Closing the Crisis Protection Gap — a group of 20 leaders from across sectors and geographies — today launched the report Crisis Protection 2.0: Future-Proofing Our World. Concluding a year of deliberations, the report’s call to action is stark: The crisis protection gap is widening, and to meet increasingly frequent and severe shocks across the globe requires scaling the proportion of crisis finance, which is prearranged tenfold by 2035, especially for the least developed countries and small island developing states.
“In a world where risks can be modelled with ever greater precision, we should not wait to react until a crisis occurs,” said Co-Chair of the High-Level Panel Sir Mark Lowcock. “Nor can millions of people in vulnerable communities be left dependent on underfunded, ad hoc financial appeals where more effective financing instruments exist.”
The Panel has provided ten recommendations intended to make this transition happen over the next decade, with actions described for governments, public finance providers and international financial institutions, as well as public and private insurance providers, and civil society to shift towards much more prearranged planning of finance for disaster response and recovery.
Of the $76bn spent on crisis finance in 2022, less than 2% was prearranged, according to research by the Centre for Disaster Protection. Of this already tiny proportion, only 1.4% of that reached low-income countries. Another way to understand this: less than $1 of every $5,000 of crisis finance goes to low income countries in the form of prearranged finance.
Annual global economic losses from unmitigated climate change are projected to range between $7 trillion and $38 trillion by 2050. To address these costs, the High-Level Panel is calling for a transformation in the level of effort dedicated to transferring risks from public balance sheets to capital markets.
“With human and economic costs already mounting, the world cannot afford to continue treating crises as unexpected surprises,” said Arunma Oteh, Co-Chair of the High-Level Panel.
“This is not just about the quantity but also the quality of finance which is being provided. Reactive funding is too slow, too costly, and leaves the world needlessly exposed. Prearranged finance must become the default for all predictable and modellable crises, not the exception,” said Oteh.
—ENDS—
NOTES TO EDITORS
Key messages from Crisis Protection 2.0: Future-Proofing Our World:
Scale prearranged crisis finance tenfold by 2035: Increase from 2% today to 20%, with a quadrupling within three years.
Risk-informed country leadership is essential: Countries - supported by international and regional partners - must be proactive in planning for and managing crisis risks, and integrating finance ministries into crisis planning.
Tailored, adaptable solutions: Prearranged finance must be affordable, transparent, and adaptable to diverse risks and development levels and countries and communities better supported to to select the tools suited to their unique risks.
Equity and inclusivity: Focus on fragile, conflict-affected, and vulnerable (FCV) settings to ensure no one is left behind.
Leverage insurance and capital markets: Tap into their potential to protect public assets and transfer financial risks.
Enhance transparency: Improve accountability and measurement for publicly provided prearranged crisis finance to drive adoption and scale.
About the High-Level Panel
The High-Level Panel on Closing the Crisis Protection Gap, formed in January 2024, brings together a group of 20 expert members from across sectors and geographies, united in the conviction that the crisis, climate, and development financing architectures are at a critical juncture and now is time is now for a reset to take action to close the crisis protection gap through pre-arranged finance.
The Secretariat for the High-Level Panel on Closing the Crisis Protection Gap is supported by the Centre for Disaster Protection. The Centre for Disaster Protection works to prevent disasters devastating lives, by helping people, countries and organisations change how they plan and pay for disasters.High-Level Panel members
The High-Level Panel is co-chaired by:
Sir Mark Lowcock KCB, Co-Chair, High-Level Panel on Closing the Crisis Protection Gap. Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow, Robert Bosch Academy. Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
Arunma Oteh OON, Co-Chair, High-Level Panel on Closing the Crisis Protection Gap. Executive in Residence and member, Global Leadership Council, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Former World Bank Vice President and Treasurer.
High-Level Panel Members:
Hassan Bashir, Executive Director at the Agency for Inclusive Innovations and Development (AIID).
Colin Bruce, Co-Chair of the Centre for Disaster Protection and Special Envoy, Humanitarian and Development Affairs at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Daniel Clarke, Director of the Centre for Disaster Protection.
Rosalia V. De Leon, Monetary Board Member of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Former Treasurer of the Philippines.
Stefan Dercon CMG, Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies.
Amanda Glassman, Executive Advisor to the President at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Kazi Amdadul Hoque, Senior Director of Strategic Planning and Head of Climate Action at Friendship (NGO). Climate, development, and humanitarian activist.
Ekhosuehi Iyahen, Secretary General of the Insurance Development Forum.
Alexandre Le Cuziat, Deputy Country Director - Chad, UN World Food Programme (WFP).
Daniel Lund, Special Adviser - Climate Action, Government of Fiji and Member of the Board of the UNFCCC Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage.
Maxwell Mkwezalamba, Chairperson of the Board, African Risk Capacity (ARC) Ltd. Former Minister of Finance, Malawi. Former Executive Director at IMF.
Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda. Former Minister of Investment of Egypt. Former Executive Director at IMF.
Nicholas Reader, Secretariat Lead, High-Level Panel on Closing the Crisis Protection Gap. Independent Consultant.
Veronica Scotti, Group Managing Director and Chairperson Public Sector Solutions (PSS), Swiss Re.
Phil Stevens, Director for International Finance, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Nena Stoiljkovic, Under Secretary General for Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Hon. Ryan R. Straughn, Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment in the Government of Barbados. Co-Chair of the Global Shield against Climate Risks, a joint initiative of the G7 and V20 Group of Finance Ministers.
Rachel Turner CBE, Independent Development Finance Expert. Board of Directors of IFFIm, the International Finance Facility for Immunisation. Former Director for International Finance, UK FCDO.
To learn more about the High-Level Panel’s work on closing the Crisis Protection Gap, visit: www.crisisprotectiongap.org
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