Ethiopia is set to be among the first beneficiaries of a new partnership announced on January 12, 2026, between insurance group Generali and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), aimed at strengthening climate resilience and value addition in African coffee production.
The collaboration is being implemented under UNIDO’s ACT Programme (Advancing Climate-Resilience and Transformation in African Coffee), an initiative designed to improve socio-economic conditions in coffee producing communities while supporting more sustainable and resilient value chains. According to the announcement, the programme will initially focus on Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi.
The ACT Programme is funded by Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) and is aligned with priorities under the EU Global Gateway and the Italian Mattei Plan. UNIDO is leading the programme in partnership with the International Coffee Organization (ICO) and the Inter-African Coffee Organization (IACO), alongside private sector partners.
The initiative follows a five pillar approach, value addition, climate, compliance, research, and social inclusion, with finance positioned as a cross-cutting enabler. A central feature of the Generali - UNIDO partnership is the exploration of parametric insurance solutions tailored to the coffee value chain, intended to help manage climate related risks and narrow protection gaps that can leave farmers and processors exposed to shocks.
Under the joint declaration, the partners said they wiould concentrate on three areas: expanding multi-stakeholder and public-private cooperation, conducting joint studies with an emphasis on parametric insurance in the African coffee context, and supporting dialogue and impact measurement using practical tools to assess social and environmental outcomes. Generali will contribute as a technical advisor through its Global Corporate & Commercial unit, which specializes in parametric insurance.
Generali, founded in 1831, is one of the world’s largest integrated insurance and asset management groups, operating in more than 50 countries and reporting total premium income of Euro 95.2 billion and Euro 863 billion in assets under management in 2024.
Source: Generali Group
