To stay relevant and profitable amid numerous legacy risks and a growing range of emerging risks, insurers and reinsurers will need to not only focus on risk transfer but also place greater emphasis on loss prevention—stopping risks from materialising into losses. Middle East Insurance Review spoke with Santam Specialist Solutions’ Mr Kevin Nadasen.
The global geopolitical landscape is becoming increasingly complex, with conflicts, sanctions, and shifting alliances disrupting trade routes, investment flows, and supply chains. In the Middle East, regional instability and fluctuating energy markets pose challenges for project continuity and underwriting certainty.
Against this backdrop, political risk insurance and trade credit lines are expected to see growing demand as companies seek protection against sudden policy shifts and cross-border disruptions. In the years ahead, insurers and reinsurers face a world defined by interconnected risks, where geopolitical volatility, technological disruption and environmental pressures converge to reshape traditional insurance risk models.
Preparing for tomorrow
Speaking with Middle East Insurance Review, Santam Specialist Solutions International Underwriting Manager Kevin Nadasen said, “With these new emerging risks and the new demands that will arise from the market, insurers should ensure that they strengthen their modelling, analytics and loss prevention capabilities”.
As for addressing manpower risks, he said, “Insurers that harness data, invest in health-driven innovation, and align with regional workforce goals will not only mitigate exposure—but also play an important role in supporting the long-term resilience of the region’s construction and engineering ecosystem.”
Insurers and reinsurers are rethinking traditional underwriting models as the global risk landscape is shifting rapidly, and the industry’s ability to adapt will define its resilience and profitability going ahead.”
Mr Nadasen said, “To remain competitive, insurers and reinsurers are building dynamic geopolitical risk models and advanced scenario planning tools to better anticipate sudden shifts in policy or regulation.
“They are also developing flexible policy structures that can quickly adapt to political upheavals, sanctions, or supply chain disruptions. A critical priority is to strengthen cross-border underwriting expertise, ensuring underwriters have the insight and agility to assess risks across diverse jurisdictions.”
Addressing climate change
“As climate change accelerates, insurers are facing growing pressure to manage increasingly complex environmental exposures. Leading players are investing in advanced climate and catastrophe modelling to improve the precision of their risk assessments,” said Mr Nadasen.
In parallel, insurers are designing underwriting frameworks that account for extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and energy transition risks. Collaboration with clients is becoming central — with insurers partnering with them to implement risk mitigation strategies and resilient infrastructure solutions, particularly in vulnerable regions.
Insurers actively shape climate agenda
Mr Nadasen said, “Climate change is becoming one of the defining underwriting challenges of the decade. Rising temperatures, desertification, and extreme weather events, such as flash floods, are already impacting construction timelines and property losses across the GCC.”
He said, “Reinsurers must contend with heightened catastrophe exposure as projects expand into previously undeveloped or environmentally sensitive areas, including desert and coastal zones in Oman, Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.”
Mr Nadasen also said, “Insurers’ perception towards climate change is shifting. The industry has evolved from being reactive to actively shaping the climate resilience agenda. Many insurers are embedding climate risk assessment into underwriting and claims management and investing in green infrastructure and renewable projects.
“However, the pace of these actions must accelerate. The challenge lies in balancing commercial sustainability with long-term climate accountability. Most major insurers and reinsurers are actively integrating climate risk into their underwriting, pricing, and investment strategies.”
As economies move toward decarbonisation, the insurance sector faces new transition risks—ranging from stranded assets in fossil fuel sectors to liability exposures tied to environmental compliance. The shift to renewable energy brings its own set of technological and performance uncertainties.
Nat CAT events
The Nat CAT events growing in both frequency and severity around the world are reshaping risk appetite and pricing globally. In the Middle East, floods, sandstorms, and seismic activity pose rising concerns.
Mr Nadasen said, “The Nat CAT-driven insurance landscape will most likely lean towards a harder market with gradually higher premiums and stricter underwriting, accompanied by innovative, data-driven products to meet evolving risks. Insurers that leverage technology, diversify risk, and offer resilience-based solutions will be better positioned to thrive.”
Speaking about rising catastrophic events, the growing protection gap and why loss prevention should be a priority, Mr Nadasen said, “Traditionally, the industry has focused on risk transfer rather than prevention, but that is changing. The protection gap — particularly in emerging markets — underscores the need for a proactive loss prevention culture.
“Insurers and reinsurers are now partnering with engineering consultancies to embed risk management at the design stage. They are advocating for regulatory frameworks that reward risk mitigation practices. In addition, they are offering risk engineering services bundled with coverage for clients. The industry is also seeing advocacy for regulatory incentives to promote safety standards.”
However, he indicated that the pace of the shift towards proactive loss prevention, has been slow due to traditional risk transfer models, difficulties in quantifying mitigation benefits, cost constraints, and fragmented regulatory environments.
The key to accelerating loss prevention lies in aligning incentives, investing in analytics, and embedding risk engineering into underwriting.
Workforce health vulnerabilities
Referring to the risks posed by rising lifestyle diseases, surging medical inflation, declining fertility rates and ageing populations worldwide, Mr Nadasen said, “While ageing populations and health vulnerabilities are often discussed in the context of life and health insurance, their influence reaches deep into the construction and engineering sectors—the backbone of the Middle East’s economic transformation.
“Across the GCC, this demographic shift and associated health-related risks are beginning to shape workforce dynamics, project delivery and insurance exposure in profound ways.”
Mr Nadasen said the region’s ambitious infrastructure agenda—spanning giga-projects in Saudi Arabia, energy expansion in the UAE, and new transport networks across Oman and Qatar—relies heavily on a skilled and healthy labour force.
“As the global pool of skilled workers ages and chronic health conditions become more prevalent, productivity, claims frequency, and project timelines face mounting pressure. Recognising this evolving risk, insurers and reinsurers are adapting their strategies to build resilience into the system, such as investing in preventive health analytics and wellness programmes for workers on large-scale projects to reduce claims and downtime.”
He said that (re)insurers are partnering with GCC governments to support public-private healthcare initiatives, particularly around occupational health and safety.
As the Middle East diversifies its economies and accelerates development, the intersection of demographic change, technology, and health risk is redefining how insurers engage with employers and project stakeholders.
Risks of digitisation
Rapid digitisation across industries has introduced new layers of risk, especially in the energy, infrastructure and industrial sectors. Insurers are responding by building specialised cyber risk assessment tools and offering parametric or hybrid cyber coverage tailored to large-scale operational risks.
“The insurance market, particularly in the Middle East, is undergoing a strategic transformation. The demand is clear: clients want specialised, data-driven and resilient solutions that address interconnected geopolitical, environmental, technological and demographic risks.
“Insurers that successfully blend traditional underwriting expertise with advanced analytics, parametric modelling, and advisory services will be best positioned to meet the region’s evolving risk landscape. In doing so, they will not only protect capital but also enable sustainable growth across industries, navigating an increasingly uncertain world.”
Mr Nadasen said, “At Santam Construction and Engineering, we anticipate the market to harden in the near future, with more co-insurance deals, reduced reinsurance capacity, selective coverage, greater use of alternative risk transfer, dynamic risk assessment and stricter solvency requirements.” M