Inclusive Insurance: Building Resilience, Navigating Risks, and Powering Development
Webinar
Join us on Tuesday, June 16 (9:00 EDT / 15:00 CET) for a webinar spotlighting the inclusive insurance industry’s distinctive strengths in building resilience, managing risks, and powering development across the four dimensions of sustainable development: economic prosperity, social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and peace and good governance.
At a time when cascading and compounding risks and crises – climate change, food security, and healthcare access, for example – are obscuring our vision for a better tomorrow, stronger risk management practices and tools are crucial. And yet we are not effectively using many tools at our disposal, including insurance.
The session will focus on the power and potential of inclusive insurance for households and micro- and small enterprises in the Global South. It aims to elevate recognition of the insurance industry’s resilience-building and risk management capabilities in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and help establish inclusive insurance as an explicit lever for transformational change in the post-2030 agenda.
Moderator
Lorcán Hall is a senior insurance leader with over 25 years' experience driving strategic transformation and innovation projects. He currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the World Bank-housed CGAP on inclusive insurance topics. Prior to this, Lorcán was Senior Advisor to the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), where he co-authored a landmark position paper with Professor Patrick Paul Walsh, Insurance and Sustainable Development: Partnering on Risk, Resilience, and Transformation. He also produced a complementary, free-to-access online course for the UN’s SDG Academy, Insurance and the SDGs. Lorcán holds an M.Sc. in Sustainable Development and an M.B.A in Strategy and Innovation.
Panelists
Professor Patrick Paul Walsh is the Vice President of Education and Director of the SDG Academy at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). He is on secondment from University College Dublin where he remains a Full Professor of Global Affairs and Sustainable Futures and Director of the UCD M.Sc. in Sustainable Development in partnership with the SDG Academy. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a Government of Ireland Fellow, Marie Curie (Brussels) Fellow, IZA (Bonn) Fellow, RSA (London) Fellow, EIIR (Brussels) Fellow and REPOA (Tanzania) fellow. He has held academic positions in Trinity College Dublin, K.U. Leuven, Harvard University and Columbia University. He has also held positions in the United Nations, European Commission, IMF and World Bank. His current focus is on Sustainable Development Education than is informed by Science, Practice and Policy.
Professor Dr. Phoebe Koundouri is Professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business, and the University of Cambridge. She is globally renowned for pioneering sustainable systems for the interaction between nature, society, and the economy. With 30 years of academic leadership, she ranks among the top 2% of scientists worldwide and has received numerous prestigious awards for her scientific and policy impact. She founded and directs AE4RIA Research Centers, chairs the SDSN Global Climate Hub, is President of the World Council of Environmental and Resource Economists Associations, an elected fellow of multiple academies, ERC grantee, member of the Nobel Prize in Economics Committee, and appointed by the UN Secretary-General to lead the UN Global Sustainable Development Report.
Melissa Leitner is Head of Life & Health Propositions & Sustainability at Swiss Re, based in Zurich. She brings a strong actuarial, risk-based perspective, leading the development of proposition strategies that support business growth while integrating sustainability in L&H reinsurance. Her experience includes working with global clients and partners on solution development and innovation initiatives addressing protection gaps and strengthening resilience to mortality and morbidity risks.
Anaar leads CGAP’s work on inclusive insurance, leveraging her strong experience leading programs in inclusive insurance.
Before joining CGAP in 2023, Anaar led Emerging Customer’s Public Private Partnerships and inclusive insurance programs for smallholders across the globe at AXA. Prior to this, she worked in agricultural investment for emerging economies as an investment officer at responsAbility Investments AG, and on various inclusive insurance projects, including climate insurance projects for smallholders during her tenure as Director of Development at PlaNet Guarantee. She has also worked for the World Food Programme and for IFAD on developing climate insurance for smallholder farmers.
A French and Canadian national, Anaar holds a master’s degree in Finance from Grenoble Ecole de Management, a bachelor’s degree in International Management from McGill University in Canada, and she is qualified as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). She is based in Paris.
Sofia B. Rabnawaz is a policy professional working with the Insurance Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), specializing in inclusive insurance, microinsurance, and digital financial inclusion. She is a Microinsurance Master and has contributed to regulatory and development initiatives aimed at expanding insurance access for underserved communities in Pakistan. She was also part of the core team that developed Pakistan’s first five-year strategic plan “Journey to an Insured Pakistan” focused on increasing insurance penetration and strengthening sectoral growth. Her work particularly emphasizes enforcement of mandatory insurances, technology-driven insurance solutions, and leveraging insurance as a tool for social protection and sustainable development.
Mathieu Dubreuil is Lead Disaster Risk Financing Advisor at the World Food Programme in the Climate & Resilience Service. With more than 15 years of experience in this space, he provides strategic and technical guidance on parametric insurance, covering community level (Inclusive Risk Financing, formerly the R4 Initiative), macroinsurance (including work with Risk Pools) and other risk financing tools. Based in Rome, he supports the development and implementation of all parametric disaster risk financing programmes globally. He is also member of the operational committee of the Insurance Development Forum (IDF), co-chair of the sovereign & humanitarian solutions working group, the coordination hub of the Global Shield against Climate Risks, and other working groups. Before joining WFP, he was managing five microinsurance brokerage companies in West Africa, for PlaNet Guarantee, and particularly heading a regional index insurance programme, based in Senegal, introducing the first index insurance schemes in the region. Mathieu graduated from EDHEC Business School, with a major in cultural and humanitarian aid management.
Uta Saoshiro leads Prudential’s social sustainability strategy, working across markets to advance initiatives aligned with the company’s purpose, For Every Life, For Every Future. She currently drives the Group’s inclusive insurance agenda, focused on expanding access to financial protection across broader customer segments. She brings 20 years of experience across sustainability, development finance, and insurance. Prior to Prudential, she worked with the International Finance Corporation on climate risk insurance, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations Development Programme in Mozambique. Born in Japan and raised in Kenya, she has lived and worked across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States.