As part of the Insurance Development Forum’s 10-year anniversary series, Andreas Berger, Group CEO at Swiss Re and member of the Insurance Development Forum Steering Committee, reflects on a decade of progress in advancing public–private collaboration on risk and resilience. Andreas shares his perspective on the IDF’s evolution from an ambitious idea into a global platform delivering practical, scalable solutions – from open risk models to innovative risk transfer and investment mechanisms. He also looks ahead to the IDF’s next chapter, exploring what will be critical to sustaining impact in an increasingly complex risk landscape, and offers a personal reflection on the role of data, partnership and leadership in building long-term resilience.
Looking back: When you reflect on the Insurance Development Forum’s (IDF) journey over the past decade, what stands out to you as the most significant achievement or turning point in advancing public–private collaboration on risk and resilience?
What began as an idea to enhance synergies between the public and private sectors has become the global platform for resilience collaboration. Today, the IDF brings together over 100 partners – governments, World Bank, UN bodies, donors, and the re/insurance industry – proving that insurance has a role in resilient development. Swiss Re is proud to have played a formative role since the beginning.
Tangible outcomes are particularly important. Projects involving Swiss Re have recently been completed in Mexico, Uzbekistan, Ghana, Nigeria and various other engagements are ongoing. Overall, the IDF has developed a broad range of practical solutions – from various open-access risk models, to over 10 risk transfer instruments with more ongoing. And recently the creation of an investment fund for resilient infrastructure was announced.
Now, for me, the defining achievement will be scaling these solutions: public–private partnerships that deliver results.
The role of the private sector: How do you see the insurance industry’s role evolving in supporting future-ready nations – especially as global risks become more interconnected and complex?
Global risks are increasingly interconnected. Shifting weather patterns drive water scarcity and geopolitical tension in regions like the Sahel and Central America, while extreme weather strains energy and transport systems across Africa and Asia.
In this context, insurance can play a role beyond compensating losses – it can help societies understand, anticipate, and manage uncertainty. Through the IDF, we see how combining data, expertise, policy and finance can support closing protection gaps and build future-ready nations.
Innovation and impact: From your perspective, what examples best demonstrate how the IDF has helped turn ideas into impact – particularly in areas like climate resilience, risk analytics, or financial inclusion?
Through the Global Risk Modelling Alliance, countries like Costa Rica, Ghana, and Madagascar are now working towards using open catastrophe models to price and manage climate risk themselves. The Tripartite Programme with UNDP and the German government brings parametric and sovereign insurance to developing economies, helping them recover faster after disasters. And the Inclusive Insurance Working Group reaches those often left out – small farmers and micro-entrepreneurs.
I think that’s the real innovation: turning complex risk expertise into accessible, scalable, and socially meaningful solutions.
Partnerships that work: The IDF is built on multi-sector collaboration. What have been the key ingredients, in your experience, for making these partnerships successful and sustainable over time?
The IDF connects insurers, governments, development banks, and international organisations such as UNDP and the World Bank.
This multi-sector collaboration allows for sharing of two things, one, insights and expertise from different sectors to tackle the world’s biggest problems. Two, workload-sharing, as it takes intensive efforts to cross the line on the types of projects that deliver IDF’s ambitions and projects.
Prioritization is key. This means quickly stopping things that are not viable and using the power of replicability. At the 2025 Annual Meetings, World Bank President Ajay Banga encouraged his staff to “cut, copy and paste” solutions that deliver public and private sector needs. This increases efficiency and thus impact instead of constantly reinventing the wheel.
Future focus: As the IDF enters its second decade, what priorities or shifts do you believe will be most critical for its continued relevance and impact?
The greatest challenge lies in fragile political contexts and changing government engagement. In many emerging markets, shifting priorities and untested frameworks for disaster or parametric solutions risk that momentum fades when it’s most needed.
To strengthen government ownership, we may first need to rethink how projects are run. While IDF initiatives often span several years, Morocco’s parametric earthquake programme for example showed that, once preparation is in place, design and market placement can be achieved within months. Moving toward regional and aggregator models, rather than bespoke country-by-country approaches, could also help reduce dependency on political cycles.
Secondly, it has proven effective to deepen alignment with the multilateral system – particularly the World Bank’s and IMF’s country debt programmes and the Bridgetown Initiative’s financing mechanisms. By embedding risk management into government financial planning, finance and insurance reinforce one another: government budget is de-risked, while multi-year premium funding can be sustained beyond political transitions.
A relevant example is the World Bank’s multi-country, multi-year “DRIVE” programme, which combines investments with drought insurance for pastoralists across the Horn of Africa.
In short, the next phase is about replicating and scaling. We’ve proven the model – now we must make it faster and more sustainable.
Personal reflection: What has been most meaningful for you personally in your involvement with the IDF, and how has it influenced your broader outlook on leadership and resilience?
I believe that data is the foundation of progress. Without credible, reasonable-quality data, we cannot price risk, design insurance solutions, or build trust between the public and private sectors. This is why the IDF’s work on open models, data collection for insurance product development and local capacity building is so important.
Public–private partnerships are equally vital. Governments bring scale, mandate, and reach, while the private sector contributes analytics, risk expertise, and innovation. Together, we can close protection gaps that neither side could address alone.
Ultimately, it is the combination of data and partnership with the public sector that ensures insurance and risk management become tools for sustainable growth, not just post-disaster recovery. That conviction continues to shape how I lead at Swiss Re and how I view the insurance industry’s role in strengthening global resilience.
