From ideas to on-the-ground impact: Reflections from the GAIN 2025 Innovation Challenge winners

Introduction: What is the GAIN Innovation Challenge?

Future actuaries will be central to designing and scaling the insurance solutions that help countries manage climate shocks, protect livelihoods and close the protection gap. To build that future, young professionals need chances to apply their skills to real development challenges and to see how their ideas can translate into impact on the ground.

In 2025, the UNDP-Milliman Global Actuarial Initiative (GAIN) ran its first Innovation Challenge, bringing together early career talent from Milliman to design sustainable insurance solutions for climate- and nature-related risks in low- and middle-income countries.

Following a highly competitive pitching process, one team stood out. Nikhil Kori, Aelina Samigullina, Colin Turer and Rhythm Dangayach proposed a parametric insurance model to protect solar panels against climate risks, including heat waves, dust storms, wildfire smoke and hail, with the goal of incentivising renewable energy adoption in emerging markets.

As their prize, the team was awarded the unique opportunity to join GAIN in the field and to experience the program’s impactful work in person.

Colin and Nikhil travelled to Ecuador in October 2025 and April 2026, where they worked alongside Milliman actuaries in Quito and Guayaquil, meeting regulators, educators, business leaders, and actuarial students. Rhythm and Aelina visited Kuala Lumpur in November 2025, contributing to internal projects and gaining direct exposure to GAIN's broader mission.

We caught up with all four afterwards to hear what the next generation makes of the challenges and opportunities GAIN is working to address.

What were the highlights of your trip with GAIN?

Nikhil: The key highlight was collaborating with such a motivated and experienced group of professionals to support a market with significant room for growth. I especially enjoyed seeing how different stakeholder conversations connected to the larger goal of strengthening actuarial capacity in Ecuador.

Rhythm: I had the opportunity to engage with professionals and contribute to a project focused on making actuarial knowledge more accessible. It was a valuable blend of learning, collaboration, and professional exposure.

Aelina: What struck me most was seeing how a small, dedicated team coordinates actuarial capacity building across so many different countries. Discovering Kuala Lumpur and Malaysian culture made it all the more memorable.

Nikhil joins GAIN ambassadors for stakeholder discussions in Ecuador.

How has this experience influenced your understanding of local actuarial ecosystems?

Colin: This trip allowed me to deepen my knowledge about the process and education necessary to become a credentialed actuary outside of the United States. Increasing my knowledge about the global actuarial ecosystem has enabled me to better understand and collaborate with international actuaries.

Nikhil: Through conversations with the GAIN team and local stakeholders, I learned that the profession in Ecuador still has a developing actuarial presence with significant room for growth. That made the experience especially exciting because it showed how meaningful early support can be in shaping an emerging ecosystem. I also saw that motivated individuals, including actuarial students, can have a significant impact on the future of actuarial work and the broader insurance industry.

What were your key learnings during the trip?

Rhythm: A key takeaway from the trip was understanding how initiatives like GAIN enhance insurance awareness and understanding of actuarial work in low-middle income countries.

Nikhil: I learned how important it is to communicate effectively in group settings, ensure different voices are heard, and build consensus around clear next steps. I also learned that while regulatory change can place significant pressure on insurance market resources, it can also create unexpected opportunities to strengthen the industry.

Colin: Understanding the importance of developing actuarial talent in Ecuador’s insurance industry, alongside the challenges of growing the profession and the collaborative efforts of stakeholders to address these barriers, was particularly insightful.

Aelina and Rhythm joined GAIN team members in Kuala Lumpur.

How do you see the role of GAIN in strengthening local actuarial capacity?

Nikhil: GAIN can support local stakeholders in two ways: first, by sharing insights from more developed actuarial ecosystems to help illustrate the long-term potential of their insurance markets and second, by facilitating collaboration across stakeholders to identify new opportunities for partnership and strengthen the development of the actuarial profession.

Aelina: GAIN's strength is its ability to adapt. The challenges facing an emerging actuarial market in one country are rarely identical to those in another, and the solutions shouldn't be either. Seeing how the team approaches each context with that kind of flexibility gave me a much better understanding of what sustainable capacity building actually looks like in practice.

Rhythm: GAIN plays a vital role in strengthening local actuarial capacity by combining global expertise with development-focused objectives. They enhance awareness of insurance and actuarial practices through training, guidance, and practical solutions that build sustainable local capabilities.

What advice would you share with anyone interested in volunteering for GAIN?

Aelina: Don’t be afraid or shy. You can contribute to actuarial development all over the world thanks to GAIN. You can be an actuary or come from another background (marketing, communication, data); the GAIN team welcomes different profiles. Working on this initiative will bring great professional and cultural experience.

Nikhil: If you are interested in building connections and supporting collaboration between different stakeholders, volunteering with GAIN can be an incredibly meaningful experience.

Colin: My advice would be to go for it! Before the trip, I felt nervous and unsure whether I had enough experience to contribute in a meaningful way. However, once I arrived, those doubts quickly faded as I recognised that my perspective as a student brought a unique and valuable contribution to the discussions.

Colin joins discussions on how to strengthen actuarial capacity in Ecuador.

Why the next generation matters to GAIN

The insights shared by Nikhil, Colin, Rhythm and Aelina point to something GAIN has seen consistently across its work: young actuarial professionals bring energy, curiosity and perspective that strengthen the initiative and the broader ecosystem it is trying to build.

Engaging them early, through challenges, field trips and mentorship, creates a cohort of professionals who understand what is at stake in emerging markets before their careers have fully taken shape.

For countries working to develop local actuarial capacity, that long-term pipeline of motivated, globally aware professionals is part of what makes change sustainable. GAIN's Innovation Challenge is one small piece of that, but the conversations it sparked and the experiences it opened up show what is possible when the next generation is brought into the room early.