ISLAMABAD: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF), Bilal Anwar has said that the Fund was evolving from a facilitating and funding entity to a catalytic fund leading on disaster risk reduction measures and climate resilience paradigm in the country. The fund is going to introduce the nation’s first ever nationwide Disaster Risk Insurance framework to ensure climate proof resilience. The NDRMF has been serving the country since its inception as a facilitation vehicle and has accredited around 32 non-governmental organizations as fund implementing partners (FIPs) that have been trained, capacitated on system design and advancement of especially designed and first of its kind natural catastrophe (NatCat) model during two different training sessions that included specialized training on the model, said Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NDRMF, he said in an exclusive interview with APP on Sunday sharing the recent development and initiatives being taken by the Fund. CEO Bilal Anwar said Disaster Risk Insurance framework development and initiative is the mandate of the Fund and is enshrined the responsibility to define the contours of different disaster risk transfer mechanisms including the Disaster Risk Insurance. “This effort is to facilitate and strengthen private sector finance-based funding streams to finance post-disaster rehabilitation and shift the burden from already limited public funding to readily available private sector finance,” he said. He added that it was a huge responsibility and the most critical element in the prevailing climate change and disaster challenges that would lead to a comprehensive Disaster Risk Insurance facility to initiate and ensure implementation of the Policy framework. However, a year-long effort has been made on developing Disaster Risk Insurance, he said, adding that the framework will be initially rolled out at the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) School buildings which would be further sprawled to the agriculture sector like crops, livestock and other sectors’ insurance. Highlighting the constraints to the Disaster Risk Insurance framework, the Fund’s CEO mentioned that the insurance market of the country was small and financial sector not technically and financially ready, as it must absorb risk and provide insurance. He added that the Fund would not become an insurance company but rather would facilitate the process to develop the framework and empower and technically support the insurance sector for its implementation. The insurance premium, he said will be subsidized through fund to extend it to small income groups impacted by disasters. “NatCat again is facilitating technically and will make insurance survey technically viable in the hard to reach and vulnerable areas,” he said.Bilal Anwar said the Fund’s evolving role being undertaken is defined through the process of its business policy that guides its course to venture new and innovative avenues. Risk modelling, he said is one of the unique efforts of the Fund which has been a critical technical constraint as no institution prior to NatCat possessed the capacity to ensure such instrument that could be capable of guiding such policy planning and climate adaptation. The NatCat risk model, he said is being scaled up further for a long-term and will be integrated at the national and provincial levels. Moreover, the Fund will beef up resources on developing new applications on it, he added. The NDRMF chief executive informed that the Fund is also working on another national constraint of tapping global climate finance. “The national institutions lack capacity to meet global technical and regulatory climate finance requirements. The Fund’s newly established mechanism Project Preparation Facility is designing a portfolio aligned with global financial institution that will unblock climate finance and under this the Fund will undertake capacity build-up of national institutions,” Bilal Anwar said.