It is expensive, and very difficult, for everybody at risk to hold enough funding to absorb the financial impact of potential future disasters. Well designed insurance pools enable countries to share the risk: by paying a manageable annual premium, they can secure access to funds if a large-enough shock hits them.

By pooling reserves and spreading the risk multiple countries can secure cheaper rates for insurance protection. Payouts allow relatively rapid access to funds in times of crisis, helping governments help people faster.

Financial instruments can be complex, requiring technical expertise, political commitment, and donor support. Like all insurance mechanisms, multi-country pools may seem too expensive in normal years (but can be truly helpful sooner or later when the insured event hits).

Smart, pre-agreed plans for clear and transparent post-disaster spending can reduce the humanitarian impact of shocks and save money in the long term. Games are helping raise awareness of the benefits and challenges of insurance pools.

Many different entities must work together to make insurance pools happen and work effectively. Lack of cooperation across countries and fields of expertise can pose substantial barriers.

To activate this Global Project, a player needs to tuck 1 Local Project card with an Incentive tag from their hands under this card.

Once active: Once per round, one player may ignore the effects of one Crisis card, if the effects of such Crisis can be reduced by Infrastructure Resilience.

• Sovereign Catastrophe Risk Pools (Financial Protection Forum)

• Sovereign catastrophe risk pools – 15 years on and still more to come (World Bank blogs)

Encourage your elected officials to plan for the financial needs of a climate future that will cause more shocks.