Building SME resilience
Generali and UNDP have joined forces to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and promote their resilience against climate change as well as other natural hazards.
SME EnterPRIZE Asia
In 2024, Generali expanded its flagship SME EnterPRIZE project in Asia, building on the engagement carried out over the past years with thousands of SMEs from across Europe to celebrate and nurture a culture of sustainability.
2024 Edition
For the first edition of SME EnterPRIZE Asia, an event was organized in Kuala Lumpur together with UNDP a well as representatives from the Malaysian Ministry of Finance, Bank Negara Malaysia, the SME Association of Malaysia as well as the insurance and financial communities to present concrete solutions on how to boost SME resilience against climate change and other risks.
The event featured:
- the launch of a joint research report titled “Building MSME Resilience in Southeast Asia”;
- the introduction of the SME Loss Prevention Framework - a digital tool for Malaysian SMEs to better understand and manage growing climate and weather-related risks;
- and the showcase of innovative solutions for SME protection in Malaysia in the framework of the Insurance Innovation Challenge Fund Malaysia.
2025 Edition
In 2025 in Bangkok, during a conference on the resilience of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), Generali and UNDP brought together – among others – high-level representatives from the Italian Embassy in Thailand, Thailand’s Ministry of Finance, local organizations, SME and MSME associations, as well as leaders from the financial and insurance sectors to share insights and propose strategies to strengthen MSME resilience against workforce health risks, climate impacts, natural disasters, and other emerging challenges the Office of Insurance Commission (OIC), the Thai-Italian Chamber of Commerce (TICC), the Italian Trade Agency (ICE), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and ASEAN institutions.
During the event, Generali and UNDP announced the renewal of their multi-year partnership and presented a joint report highlighting the urgency of protecting MSMEs. They also introduced the “MSME Health & Well-being Toolkit,” a digital tool designed to help Thai MSMEs better understand and manage health risks related to air pollution. Finally, they announced the two winners of the UNDP–Generali Insurance Innovation Challenge in Thailand - an initiative aimed at developing innovative and accessible insurance solutions to strengthen the financial resilience of MSMEs in Thailand and their workers, contributing to the country’s social protection system.
Generali-UNDP collaboration in Thailand
Generali and UNDP are expanding their continued commitment to build the resilience of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises with a new collaboration in Thailand, building upon their global partnership. The initiative aims to enhance the growth and sustainability of MSMEs in the country, as they are crucial to its economic structure, and to help them prepare for future challenges.
Focusing on the need to develop strategies for both loss prevention and social protection, the partnership aims to create an SME Social Protection Framework, a risk assessment tool designed to improve the overall readiness of entrepreneurs and raise awareness of the risks they face whilst also providing strategies to mitigate these. This includes narrowing the protection gap for business operators through insurance solutions designed to strengthen business stability and sustainability.
MSME resilience and global value chains
Generali Deutschland and UNDP organized an event dedicated to MSME resilience and global value chains in the context of rising climate-related risks and impacts.
Speeches and roundtables focused in particular on the consequences for small and medium enterprises, vulnerable markets, their social environment and global supply chains, as well as on the actions and programmes undertaken for the promotion of new, resilient economic opportunities for MSMEs.
