Insurance and the Sustainable Development Goals

Insurance and the Sustainable Development Goals, offered by SDG Academy and created by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Better Insurance Network, and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, is an online course designed to examine how insurance can support progress toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The course explores the relationship between insurance, resilience, and sustainable development, showing how both social protection programmes and private insurance solutions can help protect vulnerable people, communities, and businesses while supporting broader sustainability goals.

Core Content

The curriculum focuses on the intersection of insurance and the Sustainable Development Goals, with emphasis on how insurance can contribute to economic prosperity, social equity, environmental sustainability, and good governance. The course examines the role of social protection and private insurance in reducing vulnerability, responding to shocks, and filling resilience gaps that governments alone often cannot address. It also highlights how insurance can support specific SDG targets through data-driven insights, innovation, and public-private partnerships, with particular attention to vulnerable populations and regions in the Global South.

Key Skills

Participants will develop the ability to understand how insurance relates to sustainable development and assess the role that insurance solutions can play in advancing resilience and sustainability goals. The course helps learners build a stronger understanding of social protection, private insurance, public-private collaboration, and the broader contribution of insurance to sustainable development outcomes. It is especially useful for those seeking a more practical and policy-relevant perspective on how financial protection tools can support the SDGs.

Target Learners

This course is designed for sustainable development practitioners, private-sector actors, and insurance or extractive-sector professionals who want to understand the role of insurance in supporting sustainable development. It is particularly relevant for learners working in corporate sustainability, responsibility, renewable energy, finance, development, or resilience-focused fields who need a stronger understanding of how insurance can contribute to social and environmental outcomes.

Learning Format

Hosted through edX and SDG Academy, the course is delivered in a flexible online format and is available as part of SDG Academy’s free sustainable development learning offering. The learning experience is centered on data-driven insights, real-world examples, and perspectives from industry experts, UN representatives, and academics, helping learners build practical understanding of how insurance can support resilience and sustainable development. Its online structure makes it suitable for professionals and learners seeking a globally accessible introduction to insurance and the SDGs.

Additional Benefits

The course offers practical value for learners who want to understand insurance not only as a financial product, but as a broader tool for resilience, inclusion, and sustainable development. Its development by SDSN, Better Insurance Network, and UNITAR adds strong institutional relevance, while its focus on vulnerable populations, innovation, and public-private partnerships makes it especially useful for those interested in applied sustainability and development finance.

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