The Caribbean Water Utility Insurance coverage Collective (CWUIC) not too long ago obtained an award for the “Most Modern Financing Programme” on the 2nd Caribbean Infrastructure Discussion board (CARIF) Business Awards. CARIF Business Awards acknowledge excellence in management, innovation, and the development of resilient infrastructure throughout the Caribbean.
CWUIC, launched in September 2023, gives water utilities within the Caribbean entry to parametric insurance coverage protection by way of CCRIF SPC (previously the Caribbean Disaster Danger Insurance coverage Facility) to financially shield them towards excessive climate occasions similar to hurricanes, tropical storms, and extra rainfall occasions. CWUIC was established as a segregated portfolio (SP)[1] inside CCRIF. Different growth companions which are offering help to CWUIC are the Inter-American Improvement Financial institution (IDB); UK International, Commonwealth and Improvement Workplace (FCDO); and the Caribbean Improvement Financial institution (CDB). Along with parametric insurance coverage, CWUIC additionally offers water utility firms with:
Assist in emergency response planning and restoring and rebuilding post-disaster
Advisory companies and technical help to establish and construction precedence tasks to construct water and wastewater utilities’ resilience to pure hazards.
CCRIF is the world’s first multi-country, multi-peril danger pool offering parametric insurance coverage and gives parametric insurance coverage merchandise to 30 members – 19 Caribbean governments, 4 Central American governments, 3 Caribbean electrical utilities, 3 water utility firms and one Caribbean vacationer attraction. CCRIF gives 6 parametric insurance coverage merchandise: for tropical cyclones, extra rainfall, and earthquakes; for the fisheries sector; and for the electrical and water utilities sectors.
In accepting the award at an occasion held late final month in Miami, CWUIC Programme Supervisor, Mr. Christopher Husbands, said that, “I’m deeply honoured to obtain this recognition for the Most Modern Financing Programme on behalf of the Caribbean Water Utilities Insurance coverage Collective (CWUIC). CWUIC was established to help water utilities mitigate the monetary dangers posed by pure disasters, guaranteeing that they’ll proceed to offer important companies even within the face of extreme local weather occasions. This award serves as a testomony to our dedication to bettering the resilience of water infrastructure, defending communities, and selling sustainability in a area that’s more and more weak to the impacts of local weather change”.
Over time CCRIF has obtained a number of international awards for innovation in catastrophe danger financing. A few of these are highlighted right here. In 2008, one yr after its inception, the Facility obtained the Reinsurance Initiative of the Yr Award for the reinsurance initiative that generated probably the most promising change to a big space of enterprise. The award was introduced by The Evaluation, the main journal of the worldwide reinsurance trade, based in 1869. That very same yr, the Insurance coverage Day London Market Awards introduced CCRIF with the ‘Transaction of the Yr’ award. In 2013, CCRIF obtained the Captive Insurance coverage Firms Affiliation’s (CICA’s) Excellent Captive Award for artistic makes use of for a captive, gaining a constructive repute amongst ranking businesses, regulators, and colleagues within the captive trade. In 2018, CCRIF CEO, Mr. Isaac Anthony, obtained the Influential Particular person of the Yr Award on the Reactions seventh Latin America Re/Insurance coverage Awards occasion based mostly on the work of CCRIF to offer post-disaster reduction to the varied islands inside its membership that had been devastated by the impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
[1] CCRIF’s capability to develop and provide numerous parametric merchandise to non-sovereigns, firms and areas exterior the Caribbean similar to Central America relies on the truth that, as a segregated portfolio firm (SPC), the Facility is ready to set up segregated portfolios (SPs) or cells that permit for complete segregation of danger and danger administration operations (pricing, coverage codecs and so on.) amongst cells. Beneath this construction of SPs, CCRIF additionally is ready to present advantages such because the sharing of operational capabilities and prices, thereby with the ability to provide merchandise that price a lot lower than if every member had been to strategy the reinsurance market individually. The SP established for CWUIC joins 5 different SPs within the CCRIF construction.
In reflecting on the CWUIC award, the CCRIF CEO stated, “Because the Caribbean and Central America Parametric Insurance coverage Facility and Improvement Insurer, we proceed to push the innovation needle to shut the safety hole – which is crucial, given the growing frequency, depth and unpredictability of climate-related occasions. At the moment we’re proud to have the ability to use our parametric insurance coverage base merchandise for tropical cyclones and extra rainfall to create bespoke or distinctive parametric insurance coverage merchandise for key sectors similar to lifeline companies (water and electrical energy) to financially shield these organizations within the face of pure disasters in order that they’ll get better sooner and allow their prospects to regain entry to their companies within the shortest attainable time”.
Grenada’s Nationwide Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA), together with 2 different Caribbean water utilities (from Dominica and Belize) turned members of CCRIF in June 2024 and a month later, Grenada was impacted by Hurricane Beryl. NAWASA obtained a payout of US$2.2 million or roughly EC$6 million, inside 14 days of the passage of Beryl to start restoration efforts. Following Hurricane Beryl, which affected a number of CCRIF member international locations, CCRIF made 10 payouts totalling US$85,104,700 to 7 of its members as follows:
4 governments – Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago
2 utility firms – Grenada Electrical energy Companies Ltd. (GRENLEC) and the Nationwide Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA), Grenada
1 vacationer attraction, owned by the Authorities of the Cayman Islands.
Since its inception in 2007, CCRIF has made 75 payouts totalling US$359 million. All payouts are made to members inside 14 days of the occasion, in step with certainly one of CCRIF’s worth propositions. CCRIF payout quantities enhance with the extent of modelled loss, as much as the pre-defined protection restrict set by the coverage holder. CCRIF can present protection to members of as much as US$150 million per coverage.
The absence of insurance coverage has damaging penalties for the dimensions and length of the financial impacts of disasters and disaster danger insurance coverage offered by CCRIF can successfully present a stage of economic safety for international locations weak to pure hazards. CCRIF was not set as much as cowl all of the losses on the bottom however was designed to offer a speedy infusion of liquidity, which members can use to deal with speedy priorities and to help probably the most weak. Assessments made by CCRIF on the usage of payouts reveal that over 5 million individuals within the Caribbean and Central America have benefitted from these payouts. Over time, CCRIF payouts have been used to offer meals, shelter and drugs for affected individuals; stabilize consuming water crops; present constructing supplies for individuals to restore their properties; restore crucial infrastructure similar to roads, bridges and colleges; and help the agriculture sector amongst many different makes use of.
Within the final 5 years, members have routinely ceded over US$1 billion in insurance coverage protection to CCRIF. For the 2024/25 coverage yr, complete protection bought by CCRIF members elevated by 10 per cent in contrast with the 2023/24 coverage yr.