Designed to stimulate climate resilience and sustainable growth, the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) is a partnership between the (re)insurance industry, the United Nations, the World Bank Group and other international institutions. Its aims include improving the understanding of natural disaster risk, promoting access to insurance, promoting risk transfer via public private partnerships and private sector initiatives, and supporting governments with risk management and resilience.

The appointments, which follow on from the recent high level meeting on resilience convened with insurers by the UN Secretary General, were announced on 17 May 2016. Stephen Catlin, Executive Deputy Chairman of XL Catlin and Chair of the IDF, commented: “These CEOs will bring essential risk management experience to the table, using the same skillset they use to manage their business risk portfolios. This risk management expertise will enormously benefit governments since research has shown that a 1% increase in insurance penetration can reduce the disaster recovery burden on taxpayers by 22%.…This unique project with the leaders of the UN and the World Bank Group will be closely watched by all to see that we deliver on our promise to support society’s need for natural disaster risk awareness, risk management, resilience and insurance protection”.