Vulnerability to climate change can lead low-income communities deeper into poverty in the long run. Improving their ability to respond to, and cope with climate change-related shocks can increase social resilience and decrease vulnerability. Therefore, by establishing a mobile phone text message that alerts insurance policyholders to approaching extreme weather events, the project has sought to improve the risk management capacities of target communities. Challenges related to this objective are: Close cooperation is required between the local insurers and national disaster management...

The high transaction costs of serving low-income clients in developing and emerging market economies demand innovative approaches and technological advancements. Challenges that inflate operational costs include data collection, processing and management, premium payment mechanisms as well as claims verification and settlement. Index insurance products, mobile payment devices or more accurate weather and agricultural-yield information based on satellite data are examples of innovative approaches that can help to overcome these challenges.

Agricultural insurance is a business transaction based on the quantification of risk. The basis for all calculations of risk exposure in agriculture is sound data. Lack of data makes insurance companies shy away from agricultural insurance, either because the uncertainty makes it impossible to calculate risk or because the cost required to generate data makes the business model unviable. Generating data and making that data available to insurance companies is a key contribution from the public sector to the development of agricultural insurance. Insurers should have a right to access data...