Start Network, in collaboration with professional services firm, Aon, has launched an innovative insurance product that reinsures Start Ready, a global pooled fund designed to enable early and anticipatory action through prepositioned funding for predictable climate risks.
The bespoke insurance mechanism adds a crucial layer of protection – if the fund runs low due to higher-than-anticipated spending for crises, it ensures Start Ready can still support communities when they need it the most. Combined with advanced financial modelling, this tailored insurance solution allows Start Ready to manage its entire risk pool more efficiently and predictably, enabling it to reach more communities facing climate threats.
How it works:
Start Ready prepositions financing across a portfolio of anticipatory action systems, enabling communities to get protection before climate crises escalate. By using financial modelling, Start Ready can stretch its available resources — prepositioning more funds than it holds, based on the probability of events occurring. If multiple events happen in a given year and the Risk Pool is exhausted, the reinsurance solution kicks in, allowing Start Ready to continue disbursing funds and ensuring communities still receive timely support.
Anna Farina, Head of Crisis Anticipation and Risk Finance at Start Network, said:
We are delighted to collaborate with Aon to design and implement an innovative and groundbreaking mechanism that enhances protection for vulnerable communities across our nine countries of operation. Thanks to this insurance layer, Start Ready funds can be stretched even further enabling more people to be protected and more resources to be disbursed ahead of specific climate events. This is a significant step forward in scaling anticipatory action and building greater resilience where it's needed most.
How this collaboration transforms humanitarian financing:
- Delivers protection across multiple crises by insuring a portfolio of anticipatory action systems on an aggregate loss basis.
- Safeguards pooled humanitarian funds from insolvency, ensuring life-saving support continues even when several crises strike at once.
- Stretches funding and maximises efficiency of the Start Ready pool, ensuring support reaches communities when they’re needed the most.
- Enables more predictable and flexible disaster risk financing, expanding Start Ready’s ability to protect at-risk communities across more countries.
- Leverages donor funding and attracts private capital, shifting from traditional financing to more innovative, diversified solutions.
Emma Karhan, Head of Public Private Partnerships at Aon, said:
We are proud to work with the Start Network on this groundbreaking insurance mechanism. This initiative underscores our dedication to fostering resilience and providing innovative solutions for humanitarian efforts. With this reinsurance layer, Start Ready can extend its reach and impact, ensuring that more communities receive the life-saving support they need in the face of climate crises.
Start Ready has directly supported nearly 1 million people across the 30+ activations during the first three Risk Pools. With Risk Pool four now live, it is set to protect 800,000 more people from climate risk, backed by 12 committed donors.
As climate risks intensify, innovative financing mechanisms like Start Ready are leading the shift from traditional crisis response – ensuring limited resources go further and support reaches communities when it matters the most.
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Matthew Stickland, Head of Communications