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The GEM Governing Board officially welcomes a new Advisor sponsor - PartnerRe into the GEM family during its first meeting in 2018 held from June 28-29 at the GEM headquarters in Pavia, Italy. PartnerRe joined GEM earlier this year.

Paul Della Marta, official representative of PartnerRe, said, “This new partnership with GEM further strengthens our ability to create risk transfer solutions that provide financial protection from the devastating effects of earthquakes. We are particularly impressed by GEM’s collaborative, interactive approach in working with its stakeholders, and are proud to support GEM in their goal of worldwide earthquake resilience”.

The Board also voted to adjust GEM’s standing rules on partnership and sponsorship, making the process more flexible, easier and accessible to a wider group. For more details on how to partner with GEM, download our latest brochure here. The 2-day meeting was highlighted by the progress report on the Global Earthquake Hazard and Risk Model 2018 (GRM2018) and the initial feedback from the expert panel review. Marco Pagani, Hazard Team Coordinator and Vitor Silva, Risk Team Coordinator and concurrent Social Vulnerability lead presented comprehensive reports on the status of the GRM2018.

With only a few regions left being worked out, the GRM2018 is poised to make its first release on 5th December 2018.In addition to the status reports, the GRM2018 expert panel review chair, Tom deGroove summarized the panel’s findings saying that, “GEM is on target to launch the first version of its Global Model by the end of this year as planned. We consider this to be an excellent achievement.”

The Panel, consisting of seven international experts met on 18-19 April 2018 at the offices of the GEM Foundation in Pavia, Italy with the objective of providing advice to the GEM Governing Board on the effectiveness of GEM’s development of the global earthquake hazard/risk model, and the future direction and character of the model.

Below is an excerpt from the final report lauding GEM’s efforts to produce a global model by end of 2018.

“The Panel commends GEM’s work to develop the most comprehensive assessment of earthquake hazard and risk on a global scale that has been achieved to date. The hazard and physical risk components of the Model are at a mature level of development. The social vulnerability modelling, whilst evolving rapidly, requires further development before products should be released as part of the global hazard and risk model. The Panel recommends that GEM’s work continues to be driven by the principles of collaboration, credibility, openness and public good, and that GEM continues to address the needs of the private sector as well as the global policy agenda of disaster risk reduction and sustainable development.”

The meeting wrapped up with a discussion on GEM’s future program post-2018. Board members supported GEM’s 3-point agenda (OQ development and core products maintenance; application of science; and extending capabilities into new areas and markets), but pointed out the need to add social vulnerability and communication support in its future program.