The Insurance Development Forum (IDF) has entered into a new partnership with Start Network, a coalition of more than 50 humanitarian charities, to support the buildout of a global financial service for the humanitarian sector.
The new tool is called Start Ready and will help communities get ahead of the worsening climate crisis by providing pre-agreed funding at scale for “relatively predictable crises”, which includes things like floods, droughts, and heatwaves.
Based on local action and intelligence, Start Ready leverages innovative risk analysis, collective planning, pre-agreed triggers, and pre-positioned financing to anticipate and respond to needs around the globe.
Via the new tool, IDF member firms will provide technical assistance to members of the Start Network, including support to develop tools that analyse risks.
Alongside technical risk modelling expertise provided by Bermuda-based reinsurer RenaissanceRe, IDF members will provide software to help the humanitarian network with both financial modelling and strategic decision-making.
Christina Bennett, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Start Network, commented: “The time for talking is over – we need action now to protect the most vulnerable communities. The climate crisis is a shared crisis, and we all share responsibility to act. The IDF’s commitment to delivering concrete action to help humanitarians understand risk is impressive.
“We are delighted the IDF is partnering with Start Ready, which will help the insurance industry have a transformative impact in communities most vulnerable to the climate emergency.”
The IDF and Start Network explain that, by enabling local humanitarian action before a crisis strikes, the new tool will make valuable funds go further and ultimately help to protect more lives and livelihoods.
AXA Group and IDF Chairman, Denis Duverne, said: “As an industry we have consistently recognised that climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. A fundamental pillar of addressing it will be greater access to climate risk information, tools and standards, as well as benchmark metrics that will shed light on the climate risks of today and on future impacts.
“We are proud to work with Start Network, to drive a major step-change in the effort to open up access to climate risk understanding. This announcement is a testament to the power that collective action can have in the effort to build resilience to climate change.”
