The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a global organization with 17,000 staff working in approximately 170 offices globally towards supporting governments in developing strong policies, institutions and partnerships to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
UNDP’s policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan. Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.
In order to streamline its financial and investment engagement, UNDP launched the Finance Sector Hub, a finance and innovation platform, that draws on a critical mass of UNDP expertise, initiatives, and partnerships to support the mobilization and leveraging of resources for the SDGs and lead the implementation of the new UNDP private sector strategy and other initiatives. The Hub is an integral part of both the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) and the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA), as well as part of the GPN.
The Finance Sector Hub team in Geneva works across a range of work relevant to financing and investment for the SDGs, with strong links to financial, private and institutional sectors across Europe. In particular, it leads on UNDP’s work in insurance and risk financing as well as delivers initiatives that target the ecosystems of investment actors across Europe.
UNDP’s Work on Insurance and Risk Financing
The collaboration between the insurance industry and the development sector has grown significantly over the last five years. Key initiatives, such as the Insurance Development Forum, InsuResilience Global Partnership and the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance, have evolved into significant policy and standard setting partnerships, bringing together countries, the development sector, and the private and mutual/cooperative sectors of industry. Increasingly, these partnerships are moving beyond policy to programming, with a strong focus on not only delivering insurance and risk financing solutions to countries and communities, but also on long-term transformational change of insurance markets.
UNDP’s growing work in this space has led to the creation of a flagship initiative on insurance and risk finance, and the creation of a dedicated facility for supporting UNDP Country Offices and country partners worldwide, within the newly created Finance Sector Hub. This work covers a range of critical areas where insurance and risk transfer solutions and collaboration with the industry can add significantly to achieving and delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) Covering inclusive insurance, sovereign risk financing, insurance investments, natural capital, health, SME development and more, UNDP will work towards developing and delivering insurance solutions together with countries and communities, as well as collaborating with partners to transform insurance markets through enhancing legislation, regulation and institutional capacity.
Natural Capital, Risk, Protection
UNDP’s significant track-record in environmental, livelihoods, risk-reduction and biodiversity presents it with significant leverage potential for insurance initiatives, with natural capital presenting itself as a significant opportunity for mixing and matching investments in risk and resilience. This area of work matches the protective value of natural capital with the financial potential of investing in risk and resilience, and the decreasing of community vulnerability through investments in and protection of livelihoods. Reefs, mangroves, forests, marshes, water-basins and many other natural environments have significant untapped potential for innovative uses of financing of risk and resilience. As part of our work, and in line with the committed funding from the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA), UNDP seeks to develop a mapping of natural capital, risk and protection needs globally, throughout 2020-2021 period.