Date
Oct 05 - Oct 10, 2025
Session no.
S904-01
Location

Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg, Austria

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Health

Building Resilient Communities: Insurance Solutions for Vulnerable Individuals and Communities

An escalating insurance crisis is threatening the wealth and health of millions of families as more individuals and businesses find themselves unable to access reliable or affordable insurance. This systemic crisis is undermining household stability and community prosperity. Extreme weather events, driven by climate change, are compounding the issue, with widespread damage prompting insurers to either cancel policies or raise premiums significantly. This growing challenge threatens the stability and prosperity of households and communities worldwide.

The session will explore new approaches to investment and insurance that are critical in fostering resilient homes, businesses, and communities. These solutions are vital for promoting equity in health and wealth, particularly in regions that have long been marginalized and underinvested. Protecting vulnerable, income-strained communities has never been more urgent.

Support for this program was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

Date
Oct 05 - Oct 10, 2025
Session no.
S904-01
Location

Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg, Austria

Share

Session Information

Salzburg Global will collaborate with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and partners from the insurance industry on a session that fosters open, cross-sector, intercultural, and transdisciplinary exchange. 50 experts from around the world will explore existing strategies and bold ideas for ensuring the availability and affordability of insurance. The exchange will build on learnings from existing products in microinsurance and agriculture to support cross-sector pollination. In a highly interactive, hybrid program in Salzburg, Austria, culminating with a five-day in-person residential program, participants will develop new collaborations around existing forms of solidarity and collectivity. Aligned with Salzburg Global’s design principles, participants will be involved in active co-development and co-production, ensuring that participants contribute their perspectives and ideas from the outset.

Fellows for this program will be selected from diverse sectors and regions, representing key stakeholders from the public, private, philanthropic, and civil society sectors. Participants will include decision-makers from public policy, government (local and national), business, financial institutions, academia, community advocacy groups, and the media.

Participants will explore the following questions during the session:

  • How are countries, cities, and communities responding to the changing risk levels impacting the availability and affordability of property insurance?
  • What innovations, existing and emerging policies, and insurance product solutions can help ensure individuals with low wealth have protection of their assets?
  • How are the most marginalized in communities being heard and brought into product development and pricing?
  • What conditions are necessary to cultivate a partnership between the public sector, industry and community to ensure the financial security and resilience of communities?
  • What are the immediate opportunities for action and collaboration across sectors and geographies?
  • Facilitate the exchange of best practices, lessons learned, and emerging opportunities.
  • Build upon existing innovations in insurance product and solutions.
  • Foster partnerships between industry, government and the civic society to catalyze new ideas.
  • Capture and disseminate insights, innovations, strategies, and opportunities through various communication channels, including a media partnership, Salzburg Global networks, and participant-suggested dissemination channels.
  • Shift mindsets, spur new thinking, urgency and develop ongoing networking and collaborations among participants and the institutions they represent.
  • Co-create action plans designed and agreed by participants that can be implemented at community, city, or national levels, leveraging the program’s global scope to influence public or private-sector policies, programs, practices or public opinion.

Participants

Caroline Birch
Senior Advisor, Humanity Insured, UK
Michael Bodaken
Consultant, Former President at National Housing Trust, USA
Francis Bouchard
Managing Director for Climate, Marsh McLennan, USA
Sinja Buri
Team Lead, Climate Risk Finance Solutions, UNU-EHS, MCII, Germany
Sean Carmody
Executive Director, APRA, Australia
Chip Cunliffe
Sr Director, Innovation & Pipeline Development, Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA), UK
Pedro Henrique Fernandes Pinheiro
Knowledge and Strategic Partnerships Manager, Insurance Development Forum (IDF) / MiN, Luxembourg
Diane Faith Figueroa
Director for Innovative Finance, Asia-Pacific, Australia
Matthew Genazzini
Executive Director, Microinsurance Network, Luxembourg
Danna Giraldo
Corporate Partnerships Coordinator, WWF Colombia, Colombia
Jonathan Gonzalez
Co-founder & CEO, Raincoat, USA
Rashmin Gunasekera
Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank/GFDRR, USA
Anne Kamau
Director and Co-Founder, AB Entheos Limited, Kenya
Rahab Kariuki
Engagement Director, Busara, Kenya
Richard Leftley
Director, Wavu Ltd, UK
Balachandran M K
Head of Growth, IBISA Network, India
David Maslo
CEO, African Risk Capacity (ARC) Ltd, South Africa
Wangeci Mathenge
Head Marketing Actuary, Inclusivity Solutions, Kenya
Melissa Montgomery
Chief Programs Officer, Engineers Without Borders USA, USA
Mwenda Mugendi
Chief Executive Officer, agrails, Kenya
Niza Mundi
Project Manager, Climate Risk Insurance, ZEP-RE, Zambia
Daniel Murphy
Risk & Resilience Specialist, World Economic Forum, USA
Reema Nanavaty
Director, Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Paula Pagniez
Executive Director, Climate Risk and Resilience, Howden Group Holdings, USA
Richard Poulter
Chief Risk Officer, Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company, New Zealand
Aina Mbolatina Natacha Ratsimihafindramanana
National Consultant for Madagascar's In-Country Process under the Global Shield, Prevention and Emergency Management Unit AND the Ministry of Finance, Madagascar
Eric Roberts
Climate Risk and Resilience Senior Manager, The Nature Conservancy, USA
Claudia Ruiz
Reef Rescue Initiative Coordinator, MAR Fund, Guatemala
Wendy Smith
Agriculture and Public-Private Partnerships Lead, AXA, UK
Beatriz Vaca Dominguez
Chief Operating Officer, Micro Risk Solutions, Howden, Mexico
Jordana Vasquez
Senior Manager Climate Resilience and Equity, Resilient Cities Network, USA
Krishna Vatsa
Member, National Disaster Management Authority, India
Ashley Ward
Director, Heat Policy Innovation Hub, Nicholas Institute, Duke University, USA
Wade Warren
Board Chair, Society for International Development, USA
Dickson Wong
Director, Global Asia Insurance Partnership, Singapore
Abiba Zakariah
Commissioner of Insurance, Ghana
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