Santam and department of cooperative governance expand partnership to assist vulnerable communities

Five million people stand to benefit from the extension of the Partnership for Risk and Resilience (P4RR) between leading short term insurer, Santam and the Department of Cooperative Governance. The P4RR assists municipalities’ build capacity in combatting the risks of fire and flooding within vulnerable communities. 

“The recent devastating fires in the Garden Route and surrounding areas have highlighted the need for better collaboration between provincial and district disaster management centres to enhance the capacity of local government in the areas of fire and flood risk management,” says John Lomberg, Head: Stakeholder Relations and CSI at Santam. 

Santam’s Partnership for Risk and Resilience, previously known as BAAM (Business-Adopt-A-Municipality), was a cooperative partnership established in 2012. The initiative was originally established to assist municipalities to address vulnerable levels of risk when it came to fire, flood and storm surge hazards within poorer communities. At that time, five municipalities were selected to be part of the programme. Following the signing of the agreement, ten district municipalities and 53 local municipalities will now benefit from the expanded programme over the next five years.  

“Through the partnership, Santam has been instrumental in enabling selected municipalities to respond to emergency and disaster risk management events,” adds Lombard. 

Santam places enormous importance on its accountability to fulfil the role of a responsible corporate citizen through forging partnerships, building capacity, and creating sustainable solutions and practices to enhance the resilience of communities to manage and reduce risk.” 

Collaboration with the municipalities via the P4RR has resulted in several contributions being made by Santam in order to help mitigate ‘on the ground’ insurable risks. These contributions have included the resourcing of local fire stations with equipment such as fire hoses and protective gear, and the enabling of geographical information systems aimed at improving emergency response and disaster management capabilities. 

“We have greatly improved the provision of disaster management services across several municipalities. The expansion of the existing programme stands to benefit more than five million people between now and 2020,” concludes Lomberg.