Projects

GIIF worked with MiCRO through capacity building as well as subsidizing microinsurance premiums paid by participating MFI clients in order to support the expansion of an index-based catastrophe micro-insurance product that was the first index insurance project funded by GIIF in the Caribbean. MiCRO is a reinsurance provider based in Barbados. MiCRO currently provides natural catastrophe and weather index insurance to microfinance institutions (MFIs), which in turn insure low-income micro-enterprises.
PlaNet Guarantee activities in Burkina Faso started in 2010 and the first products were sold in 2011. MFIs and Banks were the main distribution partners. Such as a variety of distribution channels was the key to the project’s success.
PlaNet Guarantee first sold products in Mali in 2011. The project provided satellite based weather index insurance for cotton/maize farmers in the country, while farmer cooperatives were the main distribution partners.
In 2011, the World Bank Group and Partner Sanasa Insurance Company Ltd. (SICL) , supported by the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), started working on stimulating the weather-related index insurance market in Sri Lanka through a combination of capacity building and awareness raising activities at both the institutional and the smallholder farmer levels.

Argentina’s agriculture sector is very vulnerable to weather risks. For instance, cotton in the Chaco Province - the most important cotton producing area in Argentina and the third poorest province - is very exposed to drought, excess rainfall and pests. Similarly, cattle-rearing in southwest Buenos Aires Province is very exposed to droughts which impact severely on pasture production.

Cattle production is a key economic activity in Uruguay, contributing nearly 50% of the value of exports. However beef cattle production is heavily exposed to the effects of weather events. On several occasions, droughts have resulted in livestock loss and reduction in productivity and fertility of surviving cows.

Agricultural insurance was introduced in Nigeria in 1987 through the creation of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS). In 1993, the private company in charge of underwriting and implementing the NAIS was dissolved and replaced by a public-sector corporation, the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, NAIC. Currently, NAIC writes a portfolio of crop, forestry, livestock, poultry and aquaculture insurance and also non-life commercial insurance lines. NAIC has received government support both in the form of the initial capitalization of the company and 50% premium subsidies on

Agriculture in Rwanda accounts for one-third of Rwanda’s GDP; constitutes the main economic activity for rural households (especially women) and remains the main source of income. Today, the agricultural population is estimated to be a little less than 80% of the total population. The sector meets 90% of the national food needs and generates more than 70% of the country’s export revenues. (Source: Rwanda Development Board). Much of the agricultural land is rainfed, with little or no irrigation available. This is exacerbated by the fact that more than 68% of Rwandan land is on hillsides with a slope greater than 16%. The majority of agricultural activities are by non-commercialized smallholder farmers, with minimal investment leading to reduced yields and continued food insecurity. Commercial banks and microfinance institutions are using weather index insurance as a tool to reduce their portfolio at risk when lending to smallholders. This enables rural investment to increase, which in turns provides higher agricultural outputs leading to higher incomes. In addition, weather index insurance provides a safety net against the effects of adverse weather.
Index-based livestock insurance is designed to cater for pastoral communities in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) of Northern Kenya. Currently the project is being implemented in Marsabit Northern Kenya. The target clients are individual pastoralists; both large and small scale. Since the pastoral livestock depend on the pastures as the only source of food, an index -based livestock insurance that monitors the forage availability through satellites and relates this to livestock deaths was picked as the best option. Livestock insurance is critical in drought-prone countries like Kenya. In 2011, Kenya suffered one of the worst droughts in its history which killed up to 30% of the country's livestock in some of the divisions in Northern Kenya. The Government of Kenya (2000) indicates that 60% of Kenya’s livestock are found in the pastoralist land, valued at approximately $6 billion, with an annual milk value of between $67 - $107 million.

The Syngenta Foundation’s Kilimo Salama weather index insurance program has taken off in Kenya and has recently expanded to Rwanda and Tanzania. Beginning in 2009 with a pilot project offering index insurance to 200 farmers, at last count 51,000 farmers in Kenya and 14,000 farmers in Rwanda have the insurance. In 2011, Kilimo Salama’s partner UAP Insurance collected KSh 19 million in premium payments, and premium revenue has nearly doubled to KSh 33 million in just the first six months of 2012. These premium volumes are approaching levels than can make index insurance economically sustainable