When more than 50 government officials and practitioners gathered in Istanbul in April 2025, the objective was clear: move beyond theory and equip countries with the practical tools needed to strengthen disaster risk insurance systems. Convened under the World Bank Group Academy’s Disaster Risk Insurance Impact Program and delivered in partnership with the Insurance Development Forum, the 2025 Istanbul event focused on one critical question: how to design and implement effective public-private insurance solutions to close the disaster protection gap. But Istanbul was never meant to be a