Bringing Resiliency to the Asia-Pacific ~The Role of Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance~
Drawing from the ongoing activities taking place at the APEC Finance Ministers Process, and assisted by insights from the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) experts, this session focused on how to bring together a wide range of experts to structure an effective DRFI programs that meet the interests of the economies in need. Multiple DRFI initiatives are conducted worldwide, but protection gap within the region remains substantial. Given the differing circumstances of various Asia-Pacific economies, discussions were held to deepen understanding of how to drive interest towards DRFI and understand specific local needs.
“For the communities and societies to sing in a choir to be heard by the government, it could be likened to an orchestra. An orchestra cannot play effectively if there is no conductor. Projecting this onto DRFI, where multiple agencies are involved, it is important to have a conductor to orchestrate the efforts of all players.”
In order to maintain a resilient platform to tackle DRFI, three important factors were noted. First is the importance of private sector involvement, not only the insurers, but also the wider community of stakeholders. The second is the support from the public sector in a multi-year basis for the topic to be handled continuously. The third is the engagement of different agencies, not only the finance ministries but other ministries (e.g. transport, infrastructure etc.) and local governments involved in DRFI. To protect billions of people who could be affected by a natural disaster in the future, the communities and societies need to be a choir to speak out that they will need to spend some money now to structurally protect and be prepared. We need to help our economies and our leaders get over this fear of having medical treatments and taking such treatments to get fit in our middle age so we have a long future life in our economy. Organized by: APEC DRFI Network (Tokio Marine Holdings)