CCRIF provides $2.2m for La Soufrière eruption relief and recovery

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has provided financial support in the form of a grant of $2.2 million to the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines following the eruption of the La Soufrière Volcano.

According to CCRIF CEO, Isaac Anthony, “This support to the Government has been made possible because CCRIF operates as a developmental insurance company, whereby our members have our commitment to support them in times of crises; seek out opportunities to enable them to enhance their resilience to current and future natural hazards; engage donors and collaborate on programmes designed to reduce vulnerability; negotiate the best prices for reinsurance; and advance disaster risk management and ecosystems-based solutions for the betterment of the peoples of the Caribbean and Central America in keeping with Agenda 2030 and the thrust to leave no one behind.”

CCRIF said it believes that this support will provide much needed liquidity to respond to the ongoing relief and recovery efforts in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. CCRIF said that although it does not currently offer cover for volcanic eruptions it believes that as the dedicated disaster risk financing facility in the region, it has a moral obligation to respond as best as possible to the needs of its members when confronted with such dire circumstances. St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been a member of CCRIF since the inception of the Facility in 2007.

CCRIF extended its sympathies to the Government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, recognising the devastating impact of the disaster on the people and communities in the north of the island, their infrastructure, homes, and the psychosocial impacts being experienced by the general population.

Last month, CCRIF also provided a small grant of $17,000 to the UWI Seismic Research Centre (SRC), to purchase new communication and ground deformation equipment to be added to those already deployed in St. Vincent, increasing the SRC’s capacity to understand the volcano’s eruptive processes and to better monitor it and be able to provide advanced warning of hazardous activity.

In 2007, CCRIF was formed as the first multi-country risk pool in the world and was the first insurance instrument to successfully develop parametric policies for natural catastrophes. CCRIF limits the financial impact of natural hazard events to Caribbean and Central American governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a policy is triggered.

CCRIF is working to bring new parametric insurance products to market for drought and the agriculture sector and said it will give consideration in its new strategic planning cycle, starting this year, to providing coverage for volcanic eruptions considering that there are 19 live volcanoes in the Eastern Caribbean, with every island from Grenada to Saba subject to the direct threat of volcanic eruptions.

Since the facility’s inception, it has made a total of 50 payouts to 16 of its member governments, totalling approximately $200 million on their tropical cyclone, earthquake and/or excess rainfall policies.

Did you get value from this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.