The Pacific’s high exposure to natural hazards, limited insurance market capacity, and fragmented risk management practices had long constrained local and regional contractors from securing adequate insurance for donor-funded infrastructure. These gaps threatened the financial and climate resilience of critical infrastructure and the communities it served. To help address these challenges, ADB published the Guide to Insurable Infrastructure in the Pacific (2024), which provided a framework for integrating risk-sensitive design and insurance solutions across procurement, risk assessment and advisory, risk reduction, and risk transfer.

Building on the guide, a regional consultation workshop was held in Fiji in December 2024 with representatives from 14 Pacific Island countries, development partners, and insurance industry stakeholders. Participants discussed practical ways to overcome persistent barriers and examined the concept of a Pacific Regional Infrastructure Finance and Insurance Facility (PRIFIF) to support more resilient infrastructure. Since the event, ADB and its partners have advanced efforts to operationalize recommendations, including forming a consortium of private-sector members of the Insurance Development Forum to ensure technical alignment with industry practice.

The upcoming Sydney workshop represented the next step in translating earlier insights into implementation. By convening key stakeholders, presenting case studies, and co-developing an actionable roadmap, the workshop aimed to define practical steps for PRIFIF. Its goal was to help establish an insurance industry–driven ecosystem that strengthened infrastructure resilience and supported sustainable development across the Pacific.