Deadline: Sunday, Feb 11, 2018 at 20:00:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
Developing countries, and particularly the poorest and most vulnerable communities, are disproportionately affected by climate change. Exposure to shocks, such as floods and storms, and stresses such as droughts or changing rainfall patterns, can also affect those who are not poor but remain vulnerable. With the frequency of such events set to rise with climate change, communities’ capacity to absorb climate shocks and stresses represents a key component of climate resilience.
Climate risk insurance and social protection measures can help reduce affected populations’ vulnerability to shocks and stresses. Well-designed climate risk insurance schemes, when applied as part of broader risk management strategies, can act as a buffer for people shortly after an event occurs and protect people from falling (back) into poverty. Social protection, such as cash transfers and retraining, together with a wide range of other programmes aiming to reduce poverty and vulnerability, is increasingly recognised as a tool to help communities to adapt to climate impacts. Social protection can also improve incomes in the long term.
The UN Climate Resilience Initiative and InsuResilience are seeking innovative ideas for linking climate risk insurance with other forms of social protection to further enhance communities’ ability to absorb the impacts of climate change. The contest winner will receive seed funding to implement the proposal (worth 40,000 euros) and mentoring, training and technical assistance (worth 12,000 euros).
Judging Criteria
We are calling for proposals that outline an innovative, practical solution combining climate risk insurance with other forms of social protection to help vulnerable communities absorb climate impacts. Proposals could take the form of new schemes, products or methodologies or build on existing approaches.
This contest seeks proposals that:
- Are linked to a specific context;
- Highlight how the proposed innovation will enhance the target group’s’ capacity to absorb and cope with climate impacts;
- Address how long term feasibility and local ownership could be secured in the proposed approach.
- Include a detailed budget with a timeframe for implementation (detailed budgets will be requested at semi-finalist stage).
Proposals can be at any stage of development:
- Well thought-out ideas that require additional research, design or planning;
- Comprehensive strategies or schemes that are ready for prototyping or implementation;
- Initiatives and projects that have already achieved success and are ready to be scaled;
- Best practices that need refinement or support in order to scale;
- Methodologies for designing or improving the design of strategies and schemes.
Judges will be asked to evaluate proposals on the following criteria:
- Feasibility: Feasibility of the actions proposed in the proposal. Judges with different kinds of expertise will evaluate the technical, economic, social, and political feasibility of the proposals.
- Impact: Impact and ability of the actions proposed to contribute to vulnerable communities’ ability to absorb and cope with climate shocks and stresses. This includes the impact of the proposal in reaching a number of vulnerable people on the ground and the magnitude of the proposal’s impact on communities’ and individuals’ capacity to absorb.
- Novelty: Novelty of the proposal’s ideas. Innovative thinking and originality in a proposal will be valued more than encyclopedic knowledge.
- Presentation Quality: Proposals that are well-presented will be favored over those that aren’t. Presentation quality includes how well written a proposal is, how well it uses graphics or other visual elements, and how compelling are its artistic representations of possible future worlds (if any). Semi-finalists will also evaluated on the quality of the proposed detailed budget for the use of seed funding for implementation.
The Climate CoLab Impact Assessment Fellows can help you estimate the potential impact your proposal can have on preventing fatalities and damages, which the Judges will take into consideration when assessing your proposal. See your proposal’s Impact tab for more details.
Judges will evaluate proposals, and deliberate as a group to select the Semi-Finalists, Finalists, Winners, and possibly other awardee(s) at their discretion. Judgments of desirability are also made in the final stage of the contest, by the Climate CoLab community through popular vote, and by the Judges through their selection of the Judges’ Choice winner(s).
For the contest schedule and phases, please see the blue schedule bar on the contest.
Prizes
The Judges’ Choice Winner will be selected by the judging panel. The UN Climate Resilience Initiative A2R and InsuResilience will provide the Judges’ Choice Winner with seed funding for implementation of the proposal (worth 40,000 euros) and mentoring, training and technical assistance (worth 12,000 euros) as outlined below.
Seed funding for implementation of the winning proposal (worth 40,000 euros)
The Judges’ Choice Winner will receive seed funding to support the implementation of the winning proposal. The funding will be spent according to a budget submitted by the team, to be agreed on with the contest organisers. Budgets detailing how the seed funding would be spent will be requested from semi-finalists to the contest. The terms and conditions associated with the seed funding will be set out in an agreement with the winning team.
Mentoring, training and technical assistance (worth 12,000 euros)
Mentoring, training and technical assistance will be provided to the Judges’ Choice Winner. Suitable mentors will be identified to support the implementation of the winning proposal, with online and face-to-face mentoring provided on a monthly basis for the duration of three months. In addition, a training and technical assistance plan will be developed with the winning team, with the support of the mentors identified. The form of support will be determined depending on the team’s needs but could include a relevant training course or a field study on a relevant topic. The details will be set out in an agreement with the winning team.
The Judges’ Choice Winner will also receive wide recognition and visibility by MIT Climate CoLab.
The Popular Vote Winner will be chosen by popular vote, at the semi-finalist stage of the contest. The Popular Vote Winner will win an expenses-paid trip (including flight, accommodation, and meals to attend the InsuResilience Global Partnership Forum in 2018 during COP24, where the winner will be given the opportunity to present the proposal to a community of practitioners, policymakers and private sector representatives.
Additional awards and prizes may be given by either the Judges or MIT Climate CoLab in order to recognize other top proposals. See contest rules for details.
Submit Proposals: https://climatecolab.org/contests/2017/absorbing-climate-impacts
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