Draft – as of Sunday, October 05, 2008
3rd Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction
2-4 December 2008 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
“Multi-stakeholder Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction
From National to Local”
Concept Note
Technical
Session 1 (TS-1)
Public-Private Partnerships in Disaster Risk Financing
Schedule
Theme to be
addressed:
Organizers:
9:00-11:00, December 3, 2008
Risk insurance and re-insurance, catastrophe risk modeling
Background:
The economic impact of major disasters in Asian countries has been rising rapidly
due to a variety of factors ranging from the growing concentration of
population and assets in risky areas to increases in climate variability.
However, most of the costs generated by natural disasters are retained by the
governments and the households because efficient catastrophe risk-transfer
mechanisms, including catastrophe insurance, are not available.
Session Leader: Olivier Mahul, World Bank
Session Co-leaders: Christoph Pusch, World Bank
Guillermo Pacheco-Weber, World Bank
Recent innovations in catastrophe risk modeling and in catastrophe insurance
markets can help Asian middle- and low-income countries mitigate the
financial impact of these adverse events, as part of their comprehensive
disaster risk management strategy. Although some recent public-private
initiatives on catastrophic risk financing have been successful, market
imperfections may hamper their development, or at least their expansion,
both on the demand side (e.g., low awareness of catastrophe risk exposure,
post-disaster assistance, weak institutional capacity) and on the supply side
(e.g., reinsurance capacity, reinsurance cycles, start-up costs, information
costs, excessive catastrophe reinsurance pricing).
Session Objectives:
This session aims at discussing how the public sector and the private insurance
industry could improve, through public-private partnerships, the efficiency of
the catastrophe insurance markets and increasing the catastrophe insurance
penetration in Asian countries, both at the macro (government) level and
micro (households, SMEs) level. This discussion will be illustrated by recent
projects on catastrophe risk modeling and catastrophe risk financing.
Speakers and title
of their
interventions
Olivier Mahul, Program Manager, World Bank
Rationale for public intervention in catastrophe insurance markets in
developing countries
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Edward Anderson, Disaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank
Catastrophe risk modeling and its applications in disaster risk management: the
case of the Central America Probabilistic Risk Assessment project
Neil Mathison, Director, Benfield
Catastrophe Risk markets in Asia: challenges and opportunities
Andreas Bollman, Director, Swiss Re
Private-public partnerships in the implementation of catastrophe insurance
schemes from a reinsurance perspective
Rubem Hofliger, Director, FONDEN, Government of Mexico
Some Lessons from the Mexican Experience on Catastrophe Risk Financing
Possible Key
recommendations



Promote catastrophe risk financing in the dialogue on disaster risk
management.
Create an enabling environment for the development of
competitive catastrophe risk insurance markets.
Promote catastrophe risk insurance as financial incentives in disaster
risk mitigation.
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Draft – as of Sunday, October 05, 2008
3rd Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction
2-4 December 2008 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
“Multi-stakeholder Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction
From National to Local”
Concept Note
High Level Round
Table (HLRT-1)
Public-Private Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction
Schedule
Theme to be
addressed:
Organizers:
11:30- 13:00, December 3, 2008
Risk insurance and re-insurance, catastrophe risk modeling
Background:
Session Objectives:
Speakers and title of
their interventions
Possible Key
recommendations
Session Leaders: Christoph Pusch, World Bank & Olivier Mahul, World
Bank
As the frequency and intensity of catastrophic events has increased
over the past decades and the number of fatalities, injuries and
property losses has risen, governments around the world are putting a
stronger emphasis on building more effective catastrophe risk
management strategies. This is particularly true in Asia where the
impact of natural disasters is felt more intensely due to the high
population density of megacities and the concentration of property
value in hazard prone zones.
The development of efficient and affordable catastrophe risk
insurance markets is an important component of cost-effective disaster
risk management. It contributes to the governments’ role of protecting
its citizens and businesses against major adverse natural events and
helps government to focus public assistance in priority on the poor and
disadvantaged in the aftermath of a disaster.
 Inform how governments can create an enabling environment for
enhancing catastrophe risk insurance markets
 Share lessons on how governments can promote public-private
partnerships in the development of innovative insurance solutions.
 Review how the public and the private sector can work together
to increase catastrophe insurance penetration in Asia and,
thereby, alleviate the impact of catastrophe losses after a disaster.
Countries of interest:
Azerbaijan, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Philippines.
1. Promote catastrophe risk financing as an important component
of a proactive and strategic framework for disaster risk
management
2. Promote competitive catastrophe insurance markets to increase
catastrophe insurance penetration
3. Promote catastrophe risk insurance as financial incentives in
disaster risk mitigation.
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Draft – as of Sunday, October 05, 2008
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