IDF: Insurance industry is key to global resilience
Source: eDaily | 13 Jun 2016
There is growing international recognition that the insurance industry has a key role to play in building global resilience. And through a multi-stakeholder public/private partnership approach led by the insurance industry and supported by international organisations, the insurance sector can serve society more effectively and help overcome some of the world’s key challenges, said key personnel at the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) meeting held in Singapore over the weekend on the margins of the Global Insurance Forum.
Mr Samuel Munzele Maimbo from the World Bank Group, said: “For many years, in the work that we do on poverty reduction and boosting shared prosperity, it has become increasingly apparent that without the right risk management tools, a lot of our work would be in vain. People get pulled back into poverty for a long period of time, simply because of one or two risk events that take place.”
The World Bank is very excited with the partnership. It is a unique opportunity to partner with the UN and also with the private sector which brings tools and resources that are just not available in the public sector at the scale that is needed, he said. He cited the example of risk modelling. “Certainly the World Bank and other institutions can help mobilise resources to pay for these things, but there’s really no need to invent some of these models when the private sector has been using them for quite some time.”
Mr Quentin Coolen from the United Nations Development Programme, said: “It has been a long time coming. Clearly the international community and the insurance industry need each other. We face some of the same problems. We want to address these global threats brought by climate change and the impact of natural hazards. It is a massive challenge that we need to confront together.”
IDF Chair Stephen Catlin said: “We are in uncharted territory here. To get the level of engagement from the industry and get the various fraternities together is no mean feat. To get that group of people to work alongside senior people from the World Bank and the United Nations is again no mean feat. We have created an opportunity here, now we have to deliver meaningful change.”
The IDF, with the mission of “Understanding Risk to Create Resilient Platforms for Sustainable Growth & Human Dignity”, is a public/private partnership which has the overall objective to optimise and extend the use of insurance-related capabilities to protect vulnerable populations, companies and public institutions against risks and shocks. It is governed by a High Level Steering Committee, chaired by the industry (Mr Stephen Catlin) and co-chaired by the UN (Ms Helen Clark, UNDP Adminstrator) and the World Bank (Mr Joaquim Levy, World Bank Group Chief Financial Officer).
To achieve its objectives, the IDF will coordinate and implement insurance-related activities to support the UN Agenda 2030, with an initial focus on building greater resilience to climate and natural hazards risks.
