Progressing financial inclusion and promoting public health

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Progressing financial inclusion and promoting public health

Creating safety nets for more equity

The challenge Reducing the protection gap

The world's population is exposed to numerous risks, including occupational risks and food security and health-related risks. Those living in vulnerable conditions are particularly at risk, with possible enhanced negative implications for their long-term physical, physiological and socioeconomic wellbeing.

Research conducted by Swiss Re Institute clearly indicates that both industrialised and developing countries are materially underinsured. Useful financial services such as life and health, property, and other forms of insurance are often unavailable, inaccessible, and unaffordable for many people around the world. Insurance plays a key role in providing financial relief to buffer individuals and households from shocks, but the most vulnerable tend to have very limited or no coverage.

Joint efforts from the public and private sectors to close the insurance protection gap help progressing financial inclusion and promoting public health and thereby achieving positive social impact for those whom insurance is currently out of reach.

Financial inclusion around the world

  • 1.4 billion
    Description
    Number of adults worldwide that did not have a bank account in 2021.¹
  • 4.5 billion
    Description
    Number of people around the world that were not fully covered by essential health services in 2021.²

Perspective Reshaping the social contract: The role of insurance in reducing income inequality

Income inequality within countries is negative for social cohesion, economic growth, and financial markets. It is also detrimental to most insurance markets, leading to overall lower insurance penetration and reduced household protection, our research finds.

Learn more Reshaping the social contract: the role of insurance in reducing income inequality

How can we help Partnering with the public sector

Through our engagement with various partners, such as brokers, commercial and state-owned insurers, non-profit organisations, and local governments, we intend to reach the uninsured and underinsured with new and innovative insurance propositions.

Through those propositions we aim to address risk events affecting health or livelihoods of underserved populations, such as informal economy workers, low-income groups, the self-employed individuals and small businesses. For instance, we have supported government health insurance programmes through reinsurance capacity together with a comprehensive range of services which encompass advisory support on pricing, product design, operational and risk management, health and wellness and medical inflation. Also, as part of public-private partnerships, we can play a key role in the development of tailored insurance arrangements that support formerly uninsured employees or entrepreneurs, which can be a difference-maker in many parts of the world where the lack of access to financial products blocks advancement opportunities for disadvantaged segments of the population.

We leverage Swiss Re Group's global network of experts, data and proprietary tools, and a wide range of differentiated insurance propositions to provide our public sector partners with a proposition that meets their needs.

Case studies Our expertise in action

  • Insurance can play a transformative role in fostering financial inclusion by designing products that cater specifically to the needs of underserved populations. We are working with various partners to develop solutions that contribute to closing the protection gap.

Further Information

India: Index insurance for extreme heat

Protecting vulnerable women workers from the impacts of extreme heat

More extreme weather conditions not only damage homes and property but also impact food supply, nutrition, air quality and spread of disease, causing deaths, injuries and chronical health problems. Developing countries are heavily exposed to climate shocks and chronic onset, and women are disproportionately affected. In India, around 90% of women workers participate in the informal employment sector – many work outdoors and in dangerously hot indoor conditions. If they do not go to work due to extreme heat conditions, they lose their daily wages.

The Women’s Climate Shock and Insurance and Livelihoods Initiative (WCS) was launched by Climate Resilience for All and the Self-Employed Women’s Association (India). Launched in 2024, the WCS consists of parametric insurance covering extreme heat days (triggered by the number of consecutive days exceeding a pre-defined threshold temperature) and a layer of income support directly to the individual when there are harmful heat waves. The programme was co-designed by Swiss Re and ICICI Lombard.

Learn more about this index insurance for extreme heat.

New York City: Parametric flood cover

Assisting the City of New York to help vulnerable communities recover faster

The area surrounding New York City is increasingly prone to sea level rise and floods. Currently, 780,000 of New York City residents live within or directly adjacent to the 500-year floodplain. Low- to moderate-income residents are disproportionately affected and struggle to access financial resources to recover after a flood. The Center for NYC Neighborhoods (CNYCN) in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice, the Environmental Defense Fund and SBP USA sought a solution to help better protect those residents from flood risk.

Swiss Re partnered with reinsurance broker, Guy Carpenter, and the data technology firm ICEYE to develop a parametric flood insurance policy that provides up to USD 1.1 million in emergency funding. The solution leverages high-resolution data obtained through a mix of real-time satellite data, on-the-ground real-time sensors, and social media. When a flood occurs, the percentage of each insured neighbourhood inundated by floodwaters is determined and if the percentage exceeds the agreed threshold, a payment is issued to CNYCN, who will subsequently distribute grants to households. This novel parametric insurance solution was awarded the Innovation Award at the 2023 Axco Global Insurance Awards.

Learn more about the NYC parametric flood cover.

Horn of Africa: Drought insurance

Strengthening the resilience of pastoralists against more frequent droughts

Livestock is the main source of livelihood for many people in the Horn of Africa (HoA), one of the world’s poorest and most fragile regions. The HoA is home to about 50 million pastoralists, who are extremely poor. Climate change and resulting droughts, which are increasing in frequency and severity, pose an existential threat to them. The governments in the HoA region, together with the World Bank, wanted to improve the resilience of small-scale pastoralists and their buyer market access while fostering the local insurance markets.

To address this challenge, Swiss Re and other insurers worked with Zep Re and the World Bank to implement the Horn of Africa De-risking, Inclusion and Value Enhancement (DRIVE) project, which is a public-private partnership providing affordable, yet commercially viable access to insurance for pastoralists in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia. The programme was launched in August 2022 and features index-based livestock protection. Once the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which is a widely-used metric for quantifying the health and density of vegetation using sensor data, reaches a certain threshold, insured pastoralists receive a payout. Advanced technology is leveraged for both insurance cover design and loss monitoring.

Learn more about livestock protection in the Horn of Africa.

Contact us Interested in finding out more? Get in touch to learn how we can work together.

Related public sector needs

Related public sector needs

Further Information