Applications for Insurance, Analytics & Beyond: A Case for the Pacific Risk Information System

Countries are increasingly using catastrophe risk insurance as a means to access rapid liquidity in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster. This BBL will showcase the requisite data to develop an insurance product and will explore the use of risk information beyond financial application in multiple sectors such as national planning. Drawing from experience of the Pacific Risk Information System (PacRIS), the data repository that underpins the Pacific catastrophe risk pool – PCRAFI, participants will gain an understand of the breadth of available datasets and risk information that are primarily used only to inform complex financial transactions.

Confronting the fact that big data can be overwhelming and difficult to translate into action, new analytical tools and approaches were developed by the WBG - Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program (DRFIP) to aggregate, visualize and evaluate the financial exposure from natural disasters in Pacific Island Countries (PICs) using risk information found in PacRIS (see below). Analytics tools support an increased understanding of disaster risk among PICs, assisting decision makers in the selection of catastrophe risk insurance coverage and providing a new lens to evaluate other disaster risk financing instruments. Participants will examine the analytics developed using PacRIS, and how it has enabled PICs to make cost-effective disaster risk financing decisions based on sound financial advice.

The session will also discuss the challenges to maintain this information and how PacRIS will be updated through the five-year PCRAFI Program - Phase II: Furthering Disaster Risk Finance in the Pacific. Practitioners are invited to share experiences in financial risk information in other sectors and suggestions to expand the use of PacRIS in the Pacific.