On November 15, 2019, the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) hosted a full-day seminar, International Experience with Agriculture Insurance: Providing Financial Protection Against Climate Risks, in Washington, DC. In his opening remarks, Mr. Olivier Mahul, Practice Manager of Crisis and Disaster Risk Finance (CDRF), reflected on his 15-year career at the World Bank starting with involvement in Index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) in Mongolia followed by crop insurance scheme in India to offer his insights on how the agriculture insurance has evolved by tacking various challenges. He

The agricultural sector depends highly on nature, making it constantly exposed to exacerbating climate and disaster risks. To mitigate the problem, agriculture insurance and index insurance are regarded as valuable risk-management instruments because they allow farmers to continue to have access to finance and to build resilience against future risks. Having agriculture insurance is especially relevant in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where 450 million smallholder farmers feed up to 80 percent of the developing world, according to the World Food Program. While insurance companies

Vijayasekar Kalavakonda, GIIF Senior Financial Sector Specialist, talks about current GIIF's activity in Pakistan. Could you please tell us about what the Global Index Insurance Facility is doing in Pakistan? The “ Punjab Agriculture and Rural Transformation Project" is currently under implementation after it was approved in December 2017. Led by the World Bank Group’s Agriculture Practice, the project aims at increasing the productivity of crop and livestock farmers, improving their climate resilience, and fostering agribusiness development in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. Global Index

Smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa are some of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and adverse weather events. Weather-based index insurance can help farmers become more resilient by giving them a tool to manage their risk, protect their investment, and maintain their livelihood. But the insurance industry in the region has been slow to develop these products, mostly because they lack the necessary technical skills and capacity; high-level training helps develop these skills to create new and innovative index-based insurance products in the regional market, which in

From April 17 to 20, the Strategic Alliance on Climate Risk Transfer Solutions facilitated two high-level executive training on index-based livestock insurance in Mombasa, Kenya. The goal was to reflect on the Kenya Livestock Insurance Program (KLIP) – a flagship program in agricultural insurance – and define next steps for further improvement and implementation on national and county level. The World Bank and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are also involved in the Program and the gained knowledge is openly shared for other programs and countries to use. The presentation

International experts and practitioners in climate and disaster assessment, risk management, and risk communication gathered on May 14-18, 2018 in Mexico City at the 2018 Understanding Risk Forum. Organized by the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) every two years, the event provides organizations and individuals with the opportunity to exchange knowledge, highlight new activities and initiatives, establish new partnerships, and foster innovation in the field. As part of this year’s program, the Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program ( DRFIP ) and

Many of the world’s populations are vulnerable to climate shocks – to drought, flooding, irregular rainfall and natural disasters. For these countries, cities, and communities, index-based insurance is a critical risk-management tool which allows victims of such shocks to continue to have access to finance and to build resilience against future risks. Index, or parametric, insurance pays out benefits based on a pre-determined index for the loss of assets and investments as a result of weather or other catastrophic events. In contrast, traditional insurance relies on assessments of the actual

In May 2017, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) was hailed as “Innovation of the Year” from the African Insurance Awards for its work on developing the index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) in the arid lands of Kenya and the Horn of Africa. Using Normalized Differenced Vegetation Index (NDVI) that monitors livestock stress and mortality based on grazing conditions, the innovation offers a more convenient, objective measure upon which insurance contracts can be written. Which such an index insurance, herders can recover losses more quickly during and after severe droughts

Since the World Bank Group first forayed into index insurance in 2000, the financial instrument has been widely accepted as an innovation that helps small players gain access to finance and sustain their livelihoods. In the context of climate change, index insurance has helped vulnerable populations build resilience and protect themselves against catastrophes and climate risks. Index insurance pays out benefits on the basis of a pre-determined index for loss of assets and investments resulting from weather and catastrophic events. Without requiring the traditional services of insurance claims

ACRE Africa, a GIIF partner in East Africa, is a microinsurance product designer that helps foster equity, fairness, and innovation in the agricultural sector. As farmers in the region experience changing weather conditions, with delayed rain and more frequent incidents of drought, ACRE Africa engages stakeholders along the agricultural value chain and advises insurers on the development and distribution of low-cost insurance to protect smallholders’ investments. The following story is told by one of the beneficiaries of ACRE Africa. Jacinta Mutuse is a 36-year old farmer and the mother of one