Milliman-UNDP GAIN Initiative Marks One Year Supporting 10 Countries with Insurance Solutions

In September 2022, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Milliman created the UNDP-Milliman Global Actuarial Initiative (GAIN) to help developing countries better understand and manage their climate risks by building actuarial capacity and deepening insurance markets. One year later, this bold and unique initiative is thriving and growing, supporting 10 countries with insurance and risk finance solutions to face growing risks.

This multi-year effort was announced at the 77th United Nations General Assembly, with the goal of enabling sustainable economic development, reducing inequalities, enhancing democratic governance and peace-building, and promoting climate and disaster resilience.

Over the past year, the partnership between UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub, led by its Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (IRFF), and Milliman has shown remarkable progress and developed a clear vision of how the initiative can evolve in the future. Just check out the numbers: more than 50 Milliman “ambassadors” visited 10 IRFF programme countries across 12 time zones in the past 365 days: Egypt, Nepal, Nigeria, Colombia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ecuador, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, with more to come.

Jan Kellett, Head of UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility highlighted the importance of the partnership: "One year after our partnership with Milliman and working now in 10 countries, it shows that a strong insurance and institutional sector can provide inclusivity and comprehensive support for the most at-risk populations in the world.”

There have been five roadmap implementation plans agreed upon with partners; these roadmaps provide a plan for building each country’s supply of actuaries and increasing demand for actuarial expertise. Five working groups have been set up in-country, involving more than 50 volunteers. The mentorship program that has been launched involves more than 70 participants. Tutorial programs have attracted more than 60 student participants.

“The program is off to an amazing start with so much more to be done,” says Milliman chairman Ken Mungan. “For economies to advance, societies must be able to manage risk. GAIN helps people to build the skills they need to accomplish this essential task. On behalf of Milliman, we are delighted to work with the UNDP on this important effort.”

That effort is a significant one, as many programme countries have too few or even no actuaries. How can these countries benefit from a growing actuarial profession? Actuaries enable strong insurance markets and sustainable safety nets so that people are better protected against today’s risks, especially risks introduced by climate change. Actuaries can contribute to insurance mechanisms to protect crops and cattle, and to mitigate the risk posed by floods, fires, and other manifestations of climate change.

In Tanzania, a GAIN ambassador team consisting of Queenie Chow , John Meerschaert, and Christine Perkovich O'Brien identified a key limitation that is present in multiple GAIN countries: a shortage of qualified actuaries, leading to dependence on other countries for actuarial support. The response from government and insurance entities to the GAIN assessment has been positive: Officials outlined a comprehensive five-year plan that aims to increase the number of actuaries in Tanzania. Local insurance authorities are now co-chairing the GAIN initiative in the country and plan to launch an Actuarial Professional Course, targeting actuarial professionals, launching a mentorship program, and providing training to students, reinforcing a commitment to strengthening Tanzania's actuarial field.

On one of the GAIN mission trips, Milliman ambassadors Jorge Torres, Merideth Randles, and Joshua Collins traveled to Colombia to meet with a vast variety of stakeholders to collect feedback and see what could be improved in a country that has only 150 actuaries. Jorge estimated that 500 or more Colombians who are accountants or engineers are attempting to perform the duties of actuaries.

“There’s a strong presence of actuaries in terms of how they are organized, but regular people on the street don’t know what an actuary is,” Jorge said.

During Josh’s fact-finding trip to Egypt with Milliman’s MicroInsurance Centre’s managing director, Michael McCord, he learned that there were only 35 known actuaries working in a country of 110 million people.

Milliman’s Steve White and Queenie Chow traveled to Nepal and found that the beautiful country nestled in the shadow of the Himalayas technically doesn’t have a single actuary. A woman named Prechhya M. (Mathema), who is from London and came back to live with her parents in Nepal, is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFOA) in the UK, but nobody else in Nepal is a fellow or even an associate.

“She realizes there are a lot of challenges,” Steve said of Mathema. “I think everybody recognizes that they do want to build up the actuarial profession, but they’ve got a way to go.”

That was the prevailing sentiment in each of the countries Milliman visited, including Ghana, where Randles and Ong Xie represented the firm in almost two full weeks of meetings — 26 in all — with people from all across the actuarial landscape.

Randles said that while Ghana has made substantial inroads and investment in microinsurance, there remains a lack of actuarial capacity and expertise in a country where more than 80 percent of the population is working in the “informal sector,” or on their own.

“A lot of people in Ghana are doing jobs like running banana and yam shacks or delivering things around on motorbikes,” Merideth says. “So they’re all bearing the risk of their lifestyle if a catastrophic event happens to their health or life or goods.

“There’s been a lot of investment made in microinsurance and growth, and the capacity to build on that and continue to add to the type of insurance people are getting disposes a tremendous value to the people of Ghana.”

These investments tie to the UNDP’s larger effort to build insurance and risk management capacity in the developing world.

"Amid a world intensifying with escalating crises, investing in making insurance accessible and affordable is imperative,” said the UNDP’s Jan Kellet.

Each Milliman GAIN trip concluded with workshops that featured roadmaps to success. There are hurdles ahead, but the plans Milliman proposed are being received well by the stakeholders, who are motivated to grow their expertise and numbers in this important field.

“It was incredibly rewarding,” Josh said upon returning from Egypt. “I came away learning more than I had thought I would. You come in thinking we’re experts, we’re the actuaries. But I learned a lot from the folks in Egypt in understanding the fundamentals and things they deal with.”

Merideth came back from Ghana with a similar takeaway.

“It’s going to be a valuable program,” she said. “We’re excited to see it grow.”

One year in, the initiative is only beginning.