Resilient countries & communities

Overview

Developing countries are disproportionately affected by multiple global crises. Climate-related disasters in developing countries have increased eightfold in the last 30 years, highlighting the need for risk financing. However, record-breaking public debt and high interest rates are forcing 1 in 3 developing countries to spend more on interest payments than on climate and disaster resilience, education or health.
Faced with radical uncertainty, financial resilience is more critical than ever. Risk financing strategies help countries prepare for rising hazards and shocks without compromising national budgets - securing livelihoods, infrastructure and other critical assets.

UNDP’s risk financing offer

UNDP works with governments and industry partners to develop tailored country risk finance solutions. This includes technical assistance to support policy and regulatory reform, risk modelling and analysis, the integration of risk finance into key development frameworks and building comprehensive risk financing strategies, sector-by- sector, hazard-by-hazard.

Where we
work

Building resilient countries and communities across the world.

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The boundaries and names shown and the designations on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

Our projects

UNDP is increasing countries’ capacity to manage risk, financially.

Building country and community financial resilience to climate risks
The Tripartite Agreement is a partnership between UNDP, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and 20 of the world’s largest insurers under the framework of the Insurance Development Forum.
- Active in 20 countries, and projected to reach close to 64 million beneficiaries
- Development of major sovereign insurance initiatives to protect society from key hazards and shocks - underpinned by US$5 billion in risk capacity offered from insurance industry partners.
- Comprehensive technical assistance programme building long-term financial risk management capacity for governments and market capacity for local insurers.
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Building actuarial expertise in developing countries to quantify and price risks
For economies to advance, societies must be able to manage risk. The UNDP-Milliman Global Actuarial Initiative (or GAIN) is building actuarial capacity and deepening insurance markets across 10 countries.
- Building actuarial capacity and expertise of local actuarial professionals.
- Enhancing data availability through regulators and the insurance industry.
- Supporting countries in adapting with more resilient risk management as part of the climate change impact.
- Supporting advocacy to governments, insurers and others in achieving programme goals.
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Increasing demand for insurance and risk finance in Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
- Strengthening national disaster risk finance understanding and capabilities
- Integrating risk transfer into government financial decision-making and development frameworks such as Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans.
- Enhancing the regulatory and legislative environment for all aspects of financial risk management.
- Laying the foundations of long-term engagement between government and the insurance industry.
- Creating opportunities for south-south learning, advocacy and evidence.
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UNDP is working with India’s government to design a Natural Catastrophe Risk Insurance Pool (NCP) as a comprehensive and self-sustaining solution for disaster risk financing, providing financial protection to affected people, reducing the government’s fiscal burden by diversifying and transferring disaster risk, and incentivizing disaster risk reduction.

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UNDP is layering a project focused on developing Indonesia’s blue economy with a project to develop parametric reef insurance that protects and restores coral ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
- Supporting the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries in drafting relevant regulations for parametric reef insurance solutions - such as the one being developed by UNDP and Swiss RE - to succeed
- Supporting the Ministry of Finance - Fiscal Policy Agency with reviewing the existing Disaster Risk Finance strategy and its implementation at the local government level
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The FSO SAFER Salvage Operation

The United Nations, led by UNDP, implemented the complex project of transferring one million barrels of oil from the FSO Safer supertanker to a replacement vessel, preventing the immediate threat of a massive oil spill and US$20 billion is ecological damage. The salvage operation was only able to take place thanks to a specialized set of insurance policies supported by more than 100 individual underwriters. This process of binding the insurance coverage was successfully managed by UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Team.