Urban Infrastructure Insurance Facility

Supporting Latin American and Caribbean cities cope with natural disasters.

How UIIF works

Ten cities in Latin American and the Caribbean undergo a risk assessment of their key assets and areas, which informs and tailors insurance coverage, as well as disaster risk reduction measures.

These products transfer their natural disaster risks to a risk pool that leverages economies of scale and risks sharing between insurers and reinsurers, thus reducing the premium costs for cities.

Following damaging natural disasters, cities benefit from rapid access to financial resources to rebuild critical infrastructures and help the most vulnerable residents cope with the impacts.

Goals in numbers

10 cities	7.5+ million	€100 million
from Latin American and Caribbean cities, forming a diverse risk pool	covered poor and vulnerable populations	worth of insurance products, as combined insurance policies from insured cities

Benefits for participating cities

Facilitated access to climate finance thanks to better risk management

More affordable insurance coverage than cities could acquire on their own

Climate-disaster risk transferred to the private sector

Balance sheets are relieved from directly covering losses after natural disasters

More owned resources to rebuild critical infrastructure and support the most vulnerable residents

Legal and technical support

Greater understanding of the risks to critical infrastructure and residents who are more vulnerable to climate impacts

Opportunity of establishing long-lasting relationships with financial institutions and banks

Reputation as urban insurance pioneer in Latin America and the Caribbean

Why focus on risk management

While facilitating the acquisition of city-scale insurance protection against natural hazards is the project’s heart, UIIF ultimately offers a risk management toolbox to empower selected cities identifying, analysing, assessing and quantifying their disaster risks, as well as implementing risk management decisions.

Why transfer risk?

Risk transfer is a powerful tool in the risk management toolbox of cities. UIIF offers a unique opportunity to have city representatives and the insurance ecosystem sitting at the design table to devise solutions to support a resilient development.

What is a risk pool?

A risk pool groups together multiple contributors to diversify risks and spread the financial costs among them. Risk pooling mechanisms cut operational costs and uncertainties through economies of scale and portfolio diversification, respectively.

Belo Horizonte

Benito Juárez

Buenos Aires

Curitiba

Kingston

Mérida

Porto Alegre

Recife

Reynosa

Tegucigalpa

Partners and funders

UIIF is financed by KfW Development Bank on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.