The Role of Insurance Capital in Improving Economic Resilience
This report explores the controls on natural disaster recovery through detailed analysis of global disaster case studies. It aims to understand the role of insurance in affecting recovery outcomes and building resilience.
Overview
The significant divide between economic losses and insured losses, commonly called the protection gap, is among greatest challenges facing the global insurance industry and wider society. As economic losses grow over time the protection gap continues to widen, and there is an imperative to invest and encourage resilience to improve disaster outcomes.
To build the case for committing resources to pre-disaster financing with insurance, it is critical to substantiate the role of insurance in addressing the post-disaster needs of affected populations, and in building resilience. However, evidence on recovery is largely anecdotal, and there is a need to better quantify the characteristics of an affected region’s recovery from disaster.
To explore the controls on disaster recovery, this report examines a significant number of global natural disaster case studies in detail. By analysing and comparing a diverse range of cases of recovery – with contrasting narratives of success and failure or fast versus slow recovery – we can better understand the factors influencing the rate and quality of recovery, and how enhanced insurance penetration could improve outcomes for future catastrophe relief.
This report is accompanied by a series of eight Disaster Recovery Case Studies, providing detailed insights into individual events.