The Allianz Group is one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers with around 128 million* private and corporate customers in nearly 70 countries. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 768 billion euros** on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage about 1.9 trillion euros** of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we are among the leaders in the insurance industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2024, over 156,000 employees achieved total business volume of 179.8 billion euros and an operating profit of 16.0 billion euros for the group.
Putting people first
Allianz and Humanity Insured rethink climate change risk
Climate shocks – from droughts to floods – are destabilizing ecosystems and pushing already vulnerable populations further into poverty. Traditionally seen as a post-crisis solution, insurance is being transformed into a tool for resilience and for helping people prepare, adapt and invest in their futures.
Humanity Insured, an international charity, aims to narrow the protection gap by subsidizing insurance premiums for communities on the climate frontline. Allianz, a founding partner of Humanity Insured, supports this mission and is currently involved in two projects, one being in Syria.
In this interview, Gabrielle Durisch, Chief Sustainability Officer at Allianz Commercial and Charlie Langdale, CEO of Humanity Insured, explore what this partnership means for the future of insurance, impact, and resilience.
Allianz already offers some products designed to provide quick payouts based on pre-defined indices, such as drought or heavy rainfall. Examples include Ivory Coast weather insurance, which uses the ESA Soil Water Index to provide critical coverage against drought and excessive rainfall.
How are you bringing that technical know-how into your work with Humanity Insured?
Gabrielle Durisch: Products that provide quick payouts on pre-defined indices, like parametric insurance, are very valuable, especially in places where traditional insurance simply doesn’t work. It’s efficient, fast and transparent. And now, through Humanity Insured, we’re covering premiums for drought insurance into even more fragile contexts, such as food security and climate risk management support in Syria in partnership with the UN World Food Programme (WFP). These solutions deliver pre-arranged, reliable funding when it’s needed most. It’s about restoring certainty in an increasingly uncertain world to displaced people and smallholder farmers before they resort to negative coping strategies after experiencing climate shock.
Without timely financial support, families often have no choice but to sell productive assets such as livestock or tools, pull children out of school, skip meals or take on high-interest debt. Taking these measures can have long term consequences, restricting the potential of re-investment and growth. That’s why the work we are supporting through Humanity Insured is vital - providing financial security so people don’t have to make a trade off.
What was it about Humanity Insured that attracted Allianz to become involved?
Gabrielle Durisch: We are constantly on the lookout for ways in which traditional insurance models can evolve for the benefit of society. Humanity Insured does just that, as this charity uses insurance to shift from reactive to proactive to create lasting impact. We're applying insurance principles to some of the world’s most urgent challenges – climate resilience, food insecurity, displacement – and doing so in a scalable, sustainable way.
It’s also about giving people the confidence to take risks, invest in their futures and bounce back from significant events faster. Allianz is contributing up to £1 million GBP (1.2 million EUR) as a founding partner to Humanity Insured , this funding will be used to subsidize insurance policies for the individuals and organizations who are the policyholders. We see Humanity Insured as a promising model to narrow the protection gaps and increasing the resilience of communities in the long term. It also supports our growth strategy, which focuses on local resilience, productivity, and growth.
Could you walk us through the origin of Humanity Insured?
Charlie Langdale: The idea came at COP26 (2021) when Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados asked a powerful question: “Where is the private sector?”- a question that stopped me in my tracks. I’ve worked in insurance for 30 years and realized our industry had the tools to play a transformative role in addressing climate change's devastating impacts and to do this at scale.
Humanity Insured was created to channel private sector expertise and funding into scalable insurance solutions. We don’t sell insurance ourselves – we subsidize premiums to make innovative protection models accessible and affordable. We work with trusted partners like the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), WFP (World Food Programme), Tearfund and One Acre Fund to ensure support reaches the most vulnerable people in need.
What is the significance of working with Humanity Insured in terms of economic resilience - one of Allianz's strategic focus areas?
Gabrielle Durisch: What inspires us about Humanity Insured is its ambitious goal of protecting 30 million people and scaling to mobilize £2 billion of insurance capacity by 2030. The organization stands for insurance in its purest form, protecting livelihoods. It also highlights the link between protection, risk taking and economic growth for communities. Through this collaboration, we are aiming to contribute to economic resilience, one of the key drivers of our strategy.
Humanity Insured describes insurance as a tool for dignity and agency. Can you explain what you mean by that?
Charlie Langdale: Absolutely. As Gabrielle just explained, for the people we work with, insurance is not about replacing lost assets – it’s about giving people stability, security and choice restoring control over their lives. In Malawi, families and communities know that in the even of a bad harvest , they will receive payouts which they can put towards agricultural inputs, food or school fees. In India, women working in extreme heat now have protection that allows them to stop working during heatwaves without losing their income. These aren’t abstract benefits. These are tangible changes that affect their health, livelihoods and future.. And it is in such examples that the power of insurance is seen.
Why is this shift toward pre-disaster financing so critical?
Charlie Langdale: Because waiting for humanitarian aid after a crisis is too slow and too uncertain. Climate shocks are becoming more frequent and severe. Insurance allows us to respond early and with certainty. In Malawi, our program with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) triggers payments the moment drought conditions hit a threshold. That means families can afford food and supplies during the toughest season – without waiting weeks or months for aid. It restores dignity, stability, and a sense of agency. And we’re replicating this in Syria, Kenya and beyond.
How does Humanity Insured prioritize where and how you work?
Charlie Langdale: We start with people, not projects. We focus on four key groups: coastal communities, displaced people, smallholder farmers and urban informal workers. Across all groups, we prioritize the needs of women and girls to ensure that the most vulnerable populations are not left behind. Our expert panel evaluates potential grants based on impact, need and scalability. We listen to our partners from day one to ensure the funding reaches the right people and delivers the greatest impact. As well as subsidizing premiums, we also aim to fund resilience training and climate modeling to build long-term resilience, not just short-term relief.
How do you measure impact?
Charlie Langdale: We build monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning into every initiative we do-.. But beyond data, we listen. We ask people what worked and what didn’t. In Kenya, for example, we found farmers were using their insurance only to repay loans but didn’t have enough left over to buy seeds for the next planting season. So, we adjusted the policy to cover both — ensuring they could repay their loans and invest in the next harvest. That’s the kind of feedback loop we aim for. Success means the funding gets where it’s needed, on time, at scale.
What’s next from a global insurer’s perspective?
Gabrielle Durisch: The future of insurance lies in partnerships—whether public-private, business-to-business, or corporate—and innovation. We're expanding climate resilience and adaptation, exploring new models in high-risk geographies, and integrating technology to improve risk assessment. Our commitment to Humanity Insured is part of a broader Allianz vision to be a global leader in sustainable insurance. Our strategy revolves around driving growth by acquiring new customers and increasing retention, we focus on emerging technology addressing a low carbon economy such as renewable energy and battery storage, improving productivity with efficiency measures and generative AI, and reinforcing resilience through a refined capital management framework. We want to be a partner for clients, communities and institutions looking to build a more resilient world.
Humanity Insured was officially launched in September of 2024, and you have achieved a lot in a short time. What’s next?
Charlie Langdale: Since we officially launched in Oct 2024, we’ve already supported over 1.6 million people and unlocked over £31 million in protection using just £1.8 million in funding. In 2025, we aim to more than double that to exceed 3.5 million people. In the long term, we want to embed Humanity Insured into local markets, working alongside national insurers to build trust, infrastructure and local ownership. Our ambition is bold but it’s absolutely within reach with Founding partners like Allianz by our side.
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* As of December 31, 2024. Including non-consolidated entities with Allianz customers.
** As of March 31, 2025.
** As of March 31, 2025.
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