East Asia and Pacific

Interview with Benjamin Collier, Research Fellow at the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center

Wed, 01/14/2015

Topics:

Collier argues that index insurance is best suited to cover disasters which occur every 20 years or greater because severe risks lower premium costs. Below are excerpts form the interview. Q: You have done substantial research, notably with Jerry Skees on index insurance. Why do you think that index insurance needs to be designed as “disaster insurance” rather than “crop insurance”? A: We need a new frame of reference for household markets. Up to now, the consensus focus has been crop yields. Yet the effects of bad weather on household well-being are often multifaceted and poorly captured by...

Dutch Donor Support for Agricultural Insurance

Wed, 01/14/2015

Topics:

Public/Legal frameworks

Legal/Regulatory frameworks

Premium subsidies

Other frameworks

In an interview with the GIIF Team, Aaltje de Roos, Senior Policy Advisor - Department for Sustainable Economic Development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, explains why the Netherlands provides substantial donor support for agri-insurance programs in developing countries, including the World Bank Group's Global Index Insurance Facility. Q: What role would the Netherlands like to see the World Bank Group, and specifically GIIF, play in the agri-insurance field over the next 5-10 years? A: The World Bank Group, and GIIF especially, can boost the private insurance branch...

IFC Agri-Insurance Expert Gary Reusche on Public Private Partnerships and Portfolio Approach

Wed, 01/14/2015

Topics:

Public/Legal frameworks

Legal/Regulatory frameworks

Product design

Weather index

Product distribution

Farmers know that there will be years when the crop yields are reduced, or prices will be low. Perhaps they will diversify their crops, depend on livestock, or purchase a system to irrigate their crops. All these are ways to mitigate and reduce their risks. When there is no insurance culture or trust in insurance companies -and insurance companies themselves may not have extensive experience selling agricultural insurance - there is understandably little interest to purchase crop insurance. In such cases, it is the government who is the de facto insurer because crop losses of more than 50...

IFC and Partners to Launch Typhoon Insurance for Filipino Farmers

Wed, 01/14/2015

Topics:

Data management

Earthquake data

Legal/Regulatory frameworks

Product design

Catastrophe weather derivative

Country:

Philippines

IFC will work with the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Insurance Agency and the Pioneer Insurance and Surety Corporation to design new insurance products that aim to protect Filipino farmers against typhoon-related losses, which are estimated to have exceeded $2.5 billion since 2009. According to the 2012 World Disaster Report, the Philippines ranks as the third most disaster-prone country in the world, with an average of 20 typhoons per year. The project will enable CARD Insurance and Pioneer Insurance to offer indemnity insurance to thousands of farmers and rural entrepreneurs...

World Bank Group-Led Community of Index-Insurance Practitioners to Enhance Exchange of Knowledge, Expertise

Wed, 01/14/2015

Topics:

General

Weather index

Product distribution

BERLIN, November 27, 2014 —The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), an innovative program managed by the World Bank Group, launched today the Index Insurance Forum at the Agricultural Insurance Conference in Berlin. The Index Insurance Forum will serve as a unique forum for knowledge sharing and exchange of best practices among index-insurance practitioners and industry representatives.

ILO and World Bank Group to Enhance Access to Index Insurance in Rural Areas in Africa and Asia

Wed, 01/14/2015

Topics:

General

Data

Data providers

Legal/Regulatory frameworks

Product design

Weather index

Geneva, Switzerland July 24, 2014 – The International Labour Office (ILO) and the World Bank Group (WBG) have signed a memorandum of understanding that aims to provide access to improved insurance products to hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers, small businesses and individuals in Asia and Africa. The three year partnership is the first-of-its-kind within the rapidly evolving index insurance industry. The Facility and GIIF combine their strengths to improve the delivery of index insurance to farmers and their families as well as businesses, through extraction, dissemination and...

World Bank Group Global Index Insurance Facility Receives $25 Million from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Mon, 01/12/2015

Topics:

General

Data

Satellite data

Legal/Regulatory frameworks

The World Bank Group signed an agreement marking the $25 million contribution by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in support of scaling up insurance markets in developing countries over the next five years, thus helping to ensure that agricultural insurance becomes a sustainable business model for smallholder farmers.