Earlier this week we tuned you into the Rockefeller Foundation’s quest for 10 “SDG-finance unicorns,” that each can mobilize at least $1 billion for sectors key to meeting the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. A climate insurance product from African Risk Capacity, or ARC, already has provided $370 million to African nations following extreme weather events.
Now, ARC has launched Outbreak & Epidemic insurance to help countries respond to disease outbreaks that can quickly reach epidemic levels. Starting with Guinea and Uganda, countries that purchase the insurance will get rapid and targeted funds for detected outbreaks of Ebola, meningitis, yellow fever, dengue fever, SARS, MERS, Marburg virus, and smallpox — diseases that have “the most severe impacts and with which local or national authorities are least familiar due to the infrequency of the occurrence of outbreaks.”
Separately, a new report, Fighting Fire with Finance, explains Forest Resilience Bonds, another innovation in Rockefeller’s Zero Gap portfolio.
