The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is progressing a plan to become the first to utilise catastrophe bonds for food security financing, in a novel transaction that would see it become the first UN agency to sponsor a cat bond, with a target to source up to $100 million in risk transfer to boost drought resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This drought catastrophe bond, dubbed a food security catastrophe bond by the WFP, would be groundbreaking for a number of reasons.
It would mark the first catastrophe bond to benefit a UN organisation directly, with the WFP positioned to be the insured party.
It would also mark the first cat bond to directly seek to cover drought related risks, a new peril for the reinsurance capital markets.
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