Managing risk is crucial in alleviating global poverty, according to the International Insurance Society (IIS).

The United Nations aims to eradicate poverty by 2030, and IIS President and CEO Michael Morrissey told the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York last week the insurance industry can play a key role.

“The insurance industry has [been] expanding access to risk protection and risk management for centuries in the developed world, and now very broadly in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America and in other less developed areas,” he said.

“With nearly 1 billion people living on less than $US1 ($1.42) a day, this form of social protection is vital, since the poor are often just one loss event away from calamity for themselves, their families and their possessions.”

Leaders in the field include Allianz, which provides microinsurance coverage for crop and livestock for 125 million farmers across India and China.

The African Risk Capacity pool insures governments against natural catastrophes, and Peru’s La Positiva provides tailored agricultural coverage for rural farmers with limited access to communications and healthcare.

The IIS-UN collaboration started with the introduction of the Principles for Sustainable Insurance at the IIS annual conference in Rio in 2012, and is based on the insurance industry’s unique ability to contribute to risk mitigation, resilience and sustainable development.

“Through the efforts of our industry working in tandem with global policy-making organisations, the lofty objectives of the sustainable development goals, which include ending extreme poverty and hunger, can be achieved,” Mr Morrissey said.