Parametric Insurance & Climate Resilience

Index insurance has grown significantly in use over the last 20 years as a solution to improve climate resilience. While this has coincided with improved access to affordable technology, index insurance has also benefited from insurers, reinsurers and donors keen to improve climate adaptation and resilience among vulnerable populations. However, several services have struggled to scale - especially without significant governmental involvement. Early services did not offer products designed for the situation they were expected to cover. But improvements in data availability, distribution approaches and awareness of insurance and its benefits have led to more beneficiaries being protected from climatic shocks. 

Several organisations have significant experience in designing and supporting climate resilience solutions, index insurance in particular. Their aims have varied from attempting to build a market to developing social protection systems. Both approaches have one overarching goal: to cover the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities most at risk of the impact of climate change. This event will look at how insurance plays an important role, as a suite of financial products such as savings, pension and credit, to improve access to financial inclusion for vulnerable communities, as well as their ability to manage the impact of climate change.

This event brings together some of these players to discuss whether the aim of index insurance programmes should be to build markets, social protection systems or both. Insurance is not an easy sell, but an unpredictable and changing climate, and its impact on lives and livelihoods, coupled with better quality data and more awareness, makes it a compelling solution for governments, insurers, donors and other stakeholders to pursue – together.

About the speakers

Toby Behrmann is the Head of London Market & Private Public Partnerships, AXA Climate and a financial services expert, specialising in generating business in new and existing markets by starting-up operations, acquiring partnerships and growing existing relationships. Extensive experience spanning credit, direct insurance, reinsurance and ILS.

Over 20 years spent structuring and deploying financial solutions globally through retail and commercial channels including digital, business to business and direct. Considered a leading expert in Parametrics. Skilled at building, training, and managing international teams, to ensure quick execution and excellent operational and financial results. My belief is that markets are built by improving access through innovative strategy, tactics and technology.

Andrea Camargo is an expert in inclusive insurance and climate risk, she currently leads the Inclusive Climate Risk Financing portfolio within the Climate & Disaster Risk Finance & Insurance team in the World Food Programme (WFP). Andrea has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance sector and 15 years of experience in the inclusive insurance and climate risk sector in more than 30 countries in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Andrea has supported international organizations, development agencies, governments, and private sector entities, among others, proposing pioneering solutions that are legally viable, financially sustainable, and above all offer adequate protection against risks to those who need it most. Andrea is a Colombian lawyer specialized in insurance law in Colombia and in international economic law in France

Evie Calcutt is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist at the World Bank Group where she has worked globally on disaster risk financing and insurance programs. Key activities include leading policy dialog and the development of customized financial solutions to improve the financial resilience to disaster shocks at the sovereign, firm, and household level; developing disaster risk financing strategies for scalable safety net and agri-finance programs to enable rapid assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable under disaster conditions; and working with regional entities and risk pools on public private partnerships to increase the level of financial protection available.

Kipkorir Koskei  is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Policy at the Insurance Development Forum, a public-private partnership led by the insurance industry and supported by the World Bank and the United Nations, aiming to enhance the use of insurance to build greater resilience against disasters and help achieve the United Nations Global 2030 Agenda.

Kipkorir brings extensive experience in financial and disaster risk management, debt underwriting and country risk assessment from a range of global and regional financial institutions. He has been instrumental in operationalising the African sovereign insurance market, providing guidance in the design and implementation of the Africa Disaster Risks Financing (ADRiFi) Programme.

Kipkorir holds a Masters in Law - LLM (Finance Concentration) from University College London (UCL) and an undergraduate degree in Law from the University of Warwick. He is also a graduate of the University of Oxford Climate Related Financial course.

Moderator

Richard Leftley, is a Digital embedded Insurance pioneer as he pioneered micro insurance starting in January 2002 when he founded MicroEnsure which became the global leading insurtech providing insurance to over 64 million people in 12 countries across Africa and Asia. In 2020 he co-founded MIC Global which became a leading reinsurer underwriting products globally via its Lloyds syndicate 5183. In 2022 he founded Wavu as an independent consultancy providing services to the World Bank Group, serving as a non-executive director for insurtechs and helping establish new ventures for large corporates.