Zurich Insurance Group plans to extend its flood resilience alliance for a second five-year period, until 2023.

The alliance, including non-profits, academia and Zurich’s risk management experts, has focused on shifting the usual emphasis in communities on post-event recovery to pre-event resilience. The Swiss insurer said more than 110 communities in nine countries have benefited from alliance projects, which rely on an evidence-based approach built through dozens of research papers published and implemented in community programs across the globe.

Zurich said that the alliance’s second five-year period will focus, in part on generating $1 billion in additional funding for flood resilience projects. There will also be encouragement of effective public policy in support of flood resilience, and a push to develop sound practices and policy that support flood resilience. As well, the group hopes to measurably enhance flood resilience in vulnerable communities globally.

“Floods affect more people globally than any other type of natural hazard and cause some of the largest economic, social and humanitarian losses,” said Linda Freiner, Zurich’s Group Head of Sustainability. “By using Zurich’s risk expertise as a global insurer, we can help customers and communities reduce the devastating impacts of floods – even before a flood hits – and build resilience to this disaster.”

Alliance members aim to achieve the $1 billion financial target by rolling out best-practice community programs that will prove the value of resilience-building. The partners will generate and share knowledge about the existing and future achievements to encourage various stakeholders to invest in resilience.

Zurich’s partners include the non-profits Concern Worldwide, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Mercy Corps, Plan International and Practical Action, plus research partners International Institute for Applied Systems and Analysis, the London School of Economics and the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-International.

Source: Zurich Insurance