18th Consultative Forum
Event Report:
The 18th Consultative Forum was entitled “The Interconnectivity of Climate Change and Natural Catastrophes: How insurance is responding to build resilience and bridge the protection gap”. It was jointly organised by the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) in partnership with the Microinsurance Network (MIN), and the Insurance Development Forum (IDF). It took place on 23 October alongside the International Conference on Inclusive Insurance in Accra, Ghana.
It brought together around 150 representatives of international initiatives, the insurance industry as well as policymakers and supervisors to jointly identify best practices, challenges, and opportunities for developing and implementing insurance solutions that can promote financial resilience in the face of climate change and natural disaster.
The Forum was opened by Michael Kofi Andoh, the Ag. Commissioner of Insurance, NIC Ghana.
In the first session on "Global Initiatives- Awareness & Education," Alistair Gaugh, IAIS Executive Coordinator, presented the IAIS report on insurance supervisors' role in closing natural catastrophe protection gaps. Astrid Zwick, Head of the InsuResilience Secretariat (GIZ) introduced the Global Shield and its inclusive process, highlighting the joint V20 and G7 initiative's role in closing protection gaps. Tomás Soley, Superintendent of SUGESE Costa Rica and Grace Muradzikwa, Commissioner of Insurance and Pensions Commission, Zimbabwe shared their experiences on climate change action. IAIS affirmed supervisors' mandate in addressing protection gap issues.
In the second session, Dr. Stuart Fraser, Technical lead of IDF Risk Modelling Steering Group, guided the audience through the fundamentals of risk analytics as practiced by both private and public sectors, describing the metrics that unlock different types of risk finance and the key considerations to apply when using risk models to make decisions. Nick Moody, Coordinator of IDF Risk Modelling Steering Group and the private sector co-lead of the Global Risk Modelling Alliance introduced the Global Risk Modelling Alliance (GRMA). The GRMA (which is part of the Global Shield, funded by the German government and supported by the insurance sector through the IDF) offers countries open data, technology, and practical learning through co-development of risk management strategies and applied risk finance projects. This session ended with a discussion between Nick Moody and Mr Moses Ackah-Jayne, National Insurance Commission Ghana on Ghana’s partnership in the programme. Moses stressed the need for risk analysis to reduce uncertainty in financial resilience citing, in particular, the Ghana Agricultural Insurance Fund, which itself builds on the framework of the Ghana Agricultural Insurance Programme and spoke of the ambition to apply these approaches to a wider range of risks in the future as the insurance sector grows.
The third session featured private insurance representatives Carlos Boelsterli, CEO of Micro and Dorien Asampana, Head of Operations at IBISA Network along with humanitarian sector actors Andrea Camargo, Microinsurance Programmes Lead at World Food Programme and Malieta Inoke, Country Coordinator at United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), who discussed using climate risk models to bring solutions to markets through product innovation and technology. They emphasised the importance of supervisor-industry dialogue and bundling insurance with other financial services.
Overall, the forum provided insights into addressing protection gaps, the role of supervisors, risk modelling, and innovative solutions to climate risks.
Event Announcement:
The upcoming Consultative Forum is jointly organised by the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) in partnership with the Microinsurance Network (MIN), and the Insurance Development Forum (IDF). It will take place alongside the International Conference on Inclusive Insurance in Accra, Ghana. The conference will be jointly hosted by the National Insurance Commission of Ghana (NIC), the Ghana Insurers Association (GIA) and the Insurance Brokers’ Association of Ghana (IBAG) in cooperation with the Munich Re Foundation and the Microinsurance Network.
About
The devastating impact of climate change has already become a reality for many, and even more the most vulnerable societies and households. Addressing the widening protection gaps requires close collaboration between the public and private sector. Thus, bringing together key stakeholders to share their knowledge and experience in addressing climate change related risks is more important than ever.
The Consultative Forum 2023 will gather representatives of international initiatives, the insurance industry as well as policymakers and supervisors to jointly identify best practices, challenges and opportunities for developing and implementing insurance solutions that can promote financial resilience in the face of climate change and natural disaster.
Who should attend?
Senior representatives of insurance regulatory and supervisory authorities, supervisors from other relevant sectors, policymakers, insurers, brokers, climate change experts, aggregators, and international development partners.
What are the key themes?
The forum will start by looking at global initiatives like the Global Shield against Climate Risks and discuss the IAIS’ most recent work on NatCat Protection Gaps and supervisory approaches to help closing existing protection gaps. In addition, industry representatives will highlight the impact of new products and innovative services they have been developing to buffer the impact of climate change. A special focus will be put on the topic of risk modelling since one of the key elements for the insurance industry, but also for policymakers and other decision-makers is quantifying risks arising from natural catastrophes. In the light of climate change, risk modelling becomes more challenging as relying on historical data is no longer enough. For this reason, the session on risk modelling during the CF will be complemented by a half-day online training event in November for supervisors to deepen their knowledge on the topic.
What are the expected outcomes?
The event aims to produce a set of recommendations and best practices for addressing climate and disaster risks in inclusive insurance markets. These recommendations will be disseminated to the IAIS, A2ii, MiN and IDF networks and other stakeholders to inform policy and practice. In addition, the event will provide a platform for networking and knowledge exchange among participants, fostering collaboration and partnerships in this critical area.
How to register?
To attend the Consultative Forum, you have to be registered for the International Conference on Inclusive Insurance. Please register for the conference here.
Select the pre-conference you would like to attend on the second page of the registration form:
To join the Consultative Forum please select Workshop 3: The interconnectivity of climate and natural catastrophes:
Documents
Presentations from speakers:
