Uzbekistan

Overview

Uzbekistan is a lower-middle-income, doubly landlocked Central Asian country where more than 50% of the population lives in rural areas. Climate-related threats like droughts, crop diseases and pests, and extreme temperatures pose challenges for its important agriculture sector and smallholder farmers.
UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility is increasing financial protection through insurance market development in Uzbekistan. Working with government and industry partners, the Facility is building the financial resilience of smallholder farmers through the development of risk finance solutions and shaping a supportive policy environment for solution delivery.

Main Natural Hazards

Flood, Earthquake, Drought

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¹
Source:

https://drmkc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/inform-index/INFORM-Risk/Country-Risk-Profile}

Insurance penetration

0.55% non-life, 0.17% life (2022)

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¹
Source:

https://www.fitchratings.com/research/insurance/uzbek-insurance-seeks-balanced-growth-01-03-2024}

Biodiversity ranking

#127 out of 239 countries and territories (2023)

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¹
Source:

https://worldrainforests.com/03highest_biodiversity.htm}

Small business % contribution to workforce

78% of total employment (2020)

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¹
Source:

https://proreforms.uz/publications/kichik-va-orta-biznes-iqtisodiy-osish-omillari-169}

Multidimensional poverty

1.7% (2021/2022)

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¹
Source:

https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/hdp-document/2023mpireporten.pdf}

Number of insurance providers

8 life insurance companies and 33 non-life insurance companies

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¹
Source:

https://ijritcc.org/index.php/ijritcc/article/view/10168}

% Workforce engaged in agriculture

26% (2022)

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¹
Source:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS}

Our work in numbers

300K

Projected beneficiaries

Reaching people through insurance and risk finance solutions.

2

Insurance solutions in development

Protecting people, jobs, agriculture and public assets.

4

Institutional and policy processes

Strengthening the enabling environment for insurance to scale.

160

Training programme participants

Building country capacity in insurance and risk finance.

Our projects

Building resilience through agricultural insurance
UNDP is working with Uzbekistan’s government and industry partners to create an agricultural insurance programme to protect smallholder farmers and their climate-vulnerable crops, through the Tripartite Agreement (TPA) – a public-private partnership between UNDP, 20 of the world’s largest insurers under the framework of the Insurance Development Forum, and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
UNDP is also supporting the government to develop agricultural institutional frameworks, create a disaster risk finance strategy and integrate insurance and risk finance into national climate policy and development planning frameworks.

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Increasing actuarial capacity to improve financial risk management
The UNDP Milliman Global Actuarial Initiative (GAIN) aims to help countries predict and prepare for risks by increasing actuarial capacity, enabling better risk modelling and more accurate pricing of insurance and social protection mechanisms. In cooperation with government and industry partners, the GAIN initiative is working to increase actuarial capacity in Uzbekistan through training, mentorship opportunities and support for local actuarial professionals.

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UNDP is working with the National Agency of Perspective Projects of the Republic of Uzbekistan to strengthen institutional systems, processes, and governance to develop the local insurance market. This includes building an understanding of the EU Solvency II Directive, which sets out requirements applicable to insurance and reinsurance companies in the European Union seeking to ensure the adequate protection of policyholders and beneficiaries.
Incentivizing the development of new insurance products and services across emerging economies
UNDP’s Insurance Innovation Challenges are powering a new generation of insurance products and services tailored to underserved households and businesses in developing economies.
- Active in 25 countries, with an investment of over US$2.1 million
- Addressing specific barriers and opportunities to scale financial protection, with a particular focus on women, SMEs and other vulnerable groups
- Creating market opportunities for insurance providers and safeguarding development.
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