10 The purpose of this section of the eManual is to summarize the insurance arrangements made by the Organization to protect it against financial risks to which the Organization, its property, its staff members and certain groups of persons who are not staff members are exposed. It provides also key information regarding the Pension Fund (United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund - UNJSPF).
20 As a general principle insurance contracts are made:
- where a single event could cause a substantial financial loss to the Organization (e.g. fire in an office building);
- where insurance is compulsory by law (e.g. third party insurance for motor vehicles in most countries);
- where, for practical reasons (e.g. settling insurance claims for baggage and removals of staff members) it is considered more rational to pay a premium to an insurance company rather than to involve WHO in the activity;
- where, by means of insurance, certain recurring costs can be more evenly spread (e.g. social security coverage of staff members, accident insurance of non-staff members).
30 In cases where the payment of an insurance premium would be more costly to the Organization than the cost of incidental minor losses, no insurance cover is considered necessary (e.g. theft of items on office inventories, damage to motor vehicles, small quantities of supplies lost in transit).
