1. Home
  2. Knowledge Base | PreventionWeb
  3. Themes

Insurance and risk transfer

The process of formally or informally shifting the financial consequences of particular risks from one party to another, whereby a household, community, enterprise or State authority will obtain resources from the other party after a disaster occurs, in exchange for ongoing or compensatory social or financial benefits provided to that other party. Risk insurance is a key disaster risk management activity.

This theme covers aspects of disaster risk financing, catastrophe bonds, financial resilience, and micro-insurance.

Latest Insurance & risk transfer additions in the Knowledge Base

Uploaded on
Case study
Papua New Guinea
Parametric insurance for Papua New Guinea telecommunications infrastructure against earthquake risk
A bespoke product to provide PNG Data co. with parametric insurance that utilizes peak ground acceleration in the event of earthquakes damaging critical submarine fibre optic cables, key to the information and communication industries.
  • Insurance Development Forum
Case study
Burkina Faso Mali Niger
World Food Programme’s Sahel Climate Catastrophe Layer
The World Food Programme (WFP) piloted a regional Sahel Climate Catastrophe Layer (SCCL) in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, providing financial protection against severe droughts.
  • Insurance Development Forum
Cover
Update
Catastrophes: insured losses on trend to USD 145 billion in 2025

Global insured losses from natural catastrophes reached USD 137 billion in 2024.

Swiss Reinsurance Company (Swiss Re)
Bangkok residents navigate heavy floods by boat
Update
Climate risks: Strategies for building resilience in a more volatile world

A new paper from Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) presents a roadmap for how governments, insurers, and communities can work together to meet the growing challenges posed by extreme weather and natural catastrophes.

Zurich Insurance Group Limited
Cover and source: Zurich Insurance Group Limited
Documents and publications
Report: Climate risks: Strategies for building resilience in a more volatile world

This paper outlines a roadmap for achieving these policy goals, emphasizing the need for immediate and sustained action from all sectors: governments, municipalities, communities, businesses, individuals and investors, as well as the insurance industry.

Zurich Insurance Group Limited
A bystander takes a photo of floods in Zaragoza, Spain
Update
Insurance Development Forum launches suite of free, open access risk modelling tools for climate and disaster risk analysis

The Insurance Development Forum Risk Modelling Steering Group has launched a new web page housing a suite of free, open-access risk modelling tools designed to advance climate and disaster risk understanding and quantification of disaster risk globally.

Insurance Development Forum
Update
Making climate insurance work: potential approaches to fund premium support

Stable and reliable funding for premium support is key to helping the most vulnerable countries manage the growing financial risks of climate change.

ODI Global
Update
Swiss Re co-delivered innovative risk transfer solution for urban flooding in Accra, Ghana

The Insurance Development Forum (IDF), and BMZ through the InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched a groundbreaking project to develop a flood insurance solution for Accra in 2022.

Swiss Reinsurance Company (Swiss Re)
Uploaded on