Ekhosuehi Iyahen is the Secretary General of the Insurance Development Forum, a Public-Private Partnership led by the insurance industry and supported by the World Bank Group, the United Nations and other international organisations, aiming to enhance the use of insurance to build greater resilience against disasters and to help achieve the UNSDG’s and Global 2030 Agenda. Ekhosuehi has extensive experience working with Governments, international development agencies, private sector entities and academic institutions on public financial management and strengthening risk management and financing systems and the role of insurance. She has been directly involved in establishing a number of pioneering initiatives including regional risk pools in Africa, the Caribbean and the structuring of a novel agreement between the IDF, UNDP and the German Government to increase insurance protection in 20 climate-exposed countries. At COP26 she steered the launch of IDF’s hallmark Risk & Resilience Analytics programme which included the launch of a partnership between the IDF and the V20 Group of Ministers of Finance from 58 Climate Vulnerable Countries on the establishment of the Global Risk Modelling Alliance and the Global Resilience Index Initiative. Ekhosuehi is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was selected as a 2018 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Centre Resident Practitioner Fellow and in 2020 was identified by Leader’s magazine as one of 100 global resilience thought leaders.
