Generali takes part in the Insurance Development Forum’s 2025 Summit hosted at the Procuratie in Venice

Venice - Generali took part in the 2025 Insurance Development Forum (IDF) Summit that focused on the theme “Celebrating 10 years: Imagine The Possible”, bringing together leading voices of the climate and disaster risk finance and insurance community to share their views on the critical role of the insurance industry in driving greater resilience in emerging and developing economies, in collaboration with the public sector and other key stakeholders.

The IDF Summit was hosted at Generali’s Procuratie, The Home of The Human Safety Net, coinciding with the first edition of Venice Climate Week. It aimed to give visibility to bold solutions and offer practical insights into lessons from implementation with the objective to inspire, foster new ideas and catalyse positive action over the next decade. Generali was represented at the IDF Summit opening by Andrea Sironi, Chairman of the Group.

Andrea Sironi, Chairman of Generali, said: “The insurance industry plays a critical role in building climate resilience. As a responsible insurer, investor and corporate citizen, Generali fully integrates sustainability into its business model and sees public-private partnerships as an essential tool to advance sustainability across sectors. Our collaboration with the Insurance Development Forum is an important example of this. Together, we are mobilising insurance investments into infrastructure projects that strengthen climate resilience in emerging and developing economies.”

Ekhosuehi Iyahen, Secretary General of the IDF, commented during the Opening of the Summit: “Insurance is not just a safety net, but a catalyst for economic stability, for investment and for confidence in the future. The IDF as a unique partnership brings together public and private sector actors to collaborate to enhance resilience in vulnerable countries. Today, we celebrate our achievements to date and our commitment to the future, united by this goal.”

With over 200 delegates, including over 30 government officials from Ministries of Finance from EMDEs, the Summit provided a platform for new insights to inform implementation and action.

Francesco Martorana, Group Chief Investment Officer at Generali, joined a panel about the Infrastructure Resilience Development Fund initiative of IDF, outlining Generali’s participation. The initiative aims to mobilise insurance industry investment into resilient infrastructure in Emerging and Developing Economies (EMDEs).

Additionally, during the Summit, Carlo Ferraresi, Group Chief Risk Officer at Generali, presented the key findings of a study carried out jointly by Generali and UNDP on the impact of climate change on human development, particularly focusing on life and health, with the aim of defining how public-private partnerships contribute to managing this impact.

The Human Safety Net was the setting for the IDF Summit and Emma Ursich, CEO of The Human Safety Net welcomed participants to the unique historic venue in Venice.

The mission of The Human Safety Net is to unlock the potential of people living in vulnerable circumstances, so that they can transform the lives of their families and communities. The movement is active in 25 countries with two programmes for vulnerable families with children aged 0-6 and for the integration of refugees. Its Home at the Procuratie specifically welcomes an open network of individuals, organisations and institutions committed to fostering social development and inclusion, fully aligned to the goals of the IDF Summit.

Thanks to its renovation in 2022, the Procuratie has furthermore been designed to be a catalyst for the sustainability agenda in line with Venice’s ambition to become the Global Capital of Sustainability. In that context, the Procuratie also hosted the opening of the inaugural Venice Climate Week, bringing together institutional leaders and global thinkers to reignite climate ambition right at the symbolic heart of the city, highlighted by a visionary Lectio Magistralis by economist Jeremy Rifkin, unveiling “Planet Aqua” and the central role of water as our most precious common good.

Generali, as a responsible corporate citizen, is strongly committed to public-private partnerships and to using its expertise to support public bodies in reaching their objectives. As an example, the Group has a multi-year partnership with the United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP) to enhance the financial resilience of vulnerable communities, MSMEs, and global value chains to climate and other risks.

Generali and UNDP's Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (IRFF) are developing research and tools, incentivising the development of innovative insurance solutions, and advocating for holistic resilience solutions that blend risk transfer and management. The partnership combines Generali’s insurance expertise with UNDP’s long-term focus on financing and development. Furthermore, through the partnership, Generali and UNDP are contributing towards putting insurance innovation at the heart of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and 2030 Agenda.

Between 2023-2024, Generali expanded its flagship SME EnterPRIZE programme to Asia. Together, UNDP and Generali also published joint reports on ‘Building MSME Resilience in Southeast Asia’ and ‘Parametric Insurance to Build Financial Resilience’, launched an Insurance Innovation Challenge to develop insurance solutions for SMEs in Malaysia, and released a free online tool called the ‘SME loss prevention framework’ for climate-vulnerable SMEs in Malaysia to understand and prepare for rising climate risks.

Credits: Andrew Busby; Antonio Loffredo