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The World Bank estimates that disasters, such as flooding, earthquakes, and drought cost Morocco over US$575 million each year. Moreover, rapid urbanization and climate change threaten to increase the frequency and severity of weather-related events.

There’s a misguided belief amongst some that climate change is “coming.” But, ask farmers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region who are witnessing more frequent droughts, and they will assure you that the change is well and truly here already.

You don’t need to read the latest reports to know that droughts have increased in frequency and severity over the last decades. Just ask the farmers.

A multi-risk assessment for Morocco's Marrakech-Safi region – prone to multiple natural hazards, most notably floods and droughts – shows 28% of municipalities reaching very high multi-risk levels.

The MENAdrought project aims to provide tools to anticipate, prepare for and mitigate drought impacts; by enhancing self-reliance capacities, and supporting ownership of the drought-management responses with the help of open-source data and software.

This study was commissioned by the global project on “Developing Risk Management Approaches for Climate Risks”, implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in partnership with Allianz Reinsurance.

A need for new, innovative insurance products protecting SMEs in industrial zones against climate risks arose, because several places in the country, such as the Agadir zone, are increasingly exposed to heavy floods.

This flyer summarises two reports on MSME resilience commissioned by GIZ. It outlines the two project components, such as objective and methodology and summarises the results and key findings of both.