Generali

The Human Safety Net, Generali’s global initiative for unlocking the potential of people living in vulnerable contexts, has published a first activity report, sharing its two-year journey of growing Generali’s social impact in the communities where the Group is present in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Two years after its launch, The Human Safety Net is active in 21 countries around the world and running three evidence-based programmes to support families with young children and integrate refugees through work. After a rigorous selection process, The Human Safety Net has partnered with 46 leading NGOs and social enterprises, acting together like a net to amplify the impact that each organisation might have on its own. Until the end of 2019 it had supported more than 30,000 people, reaching about 20,000 children aged 0-6 and 10,000 parents, and training almost 700 refugees who created more than 100 start-ups.

The Human Safety Net brings together the strengths of non-profit organisations and the private sector. The initiative is designed for social impact through a shared methodology for implementing programs and a common framework for measuring results. As part of the Group’s broader sustainability strategy objectives, Generali aims to increase the impact of this movement of people helping people by mobilising the skills and resources of the company’s employees, agents, distribution networks, and clients. In 2019, Generali employees and agents dedicated 20,000 hours of volunteering with The Human Safety Net.

Since 2018, as a part of The Human Safety Net initiative, Generali Osiguranje Srbija has been offering a family programme in Serbia, aimed at providing children living in poverty with equal chances to realise their full potential. As parents or guardians play a key role in children’s development, the programme is designed to help them acquire knowledge that will enable them to support the development of their children during the first six years of life. The programme is being implemented in cooperation with the Novak Đoković Foundation. So far 390 workshops have been held for 600 parents and 1,000 children

To maintain close contact with more vulnerable families and refugee entrepreneurs, and to ensure program continuity during the Covid-19 emergency, additional extraordinary initiatives worth more than €1 million have been launched to support immediate necessities (like healthy kits, masks, laptops and tablets) as well as an investment in digital solutions (like online platforms and apps). The latter will allow NGO partners to support families and refugees during and after the crisis, providing them with learning opportunities, maintaining access to essential services, and limiting the social isolation of the most vulnerable. In this way, The Human Safety Net is helping reduce the digital gap in the non-profit sector.

The Chairman of Assicurazioni Generali, Gabriele Galateri di Genola, and the Group CEO, Philippe Donnet, explained, “The Human Safety Net is part of our active commitment to society. It addresses some of the great social challenges of our time and is one of Generali’s key contributions to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted inequalities and has made large sections of the population more vulnerable. In this period, more than ever before, The Human Safety Net projects have become important in unlocking the human potential of the weakest parts of our humanity and in strengthening the communities in which the Group operates. Alongside these activities of The Human Safety Net are other Generali initiatives to deal with the Covid-19 emergency, as the Extraordinary International Fund launched in March”.

The initiative is driven by Fondazione Generali The Human Safety Net Onlus, established in 2017 to support the Group’s business units in coordinating programs and activities in the countries where The Human Safety Net is active. In 2019, the contribution to The Human Safety Net by Fondazione Generali and Generali business units was € 6.3 million.