News

Agriculture Focus - Parametric Insurance Solution Against Climate Change Effects
Mr. Tanguy Touffut of AXA Corporate Solutions discusses the benefits of parametric insurance, which he sees as a promising solution for farmers and other weather-sensitive industries against climate-change effects. It is nothing new: climate change, a phenomenon in full effect, has many drastic consequences of all types for people, companies, and entire economies alike. It has been observed that weather extremes are increasing as a consequence of climate change. In January 2015, AXA Corporate Solutions entered into a partnership with the World Bank’s Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF). The
Insurance for Small Farms' Crops Takes Root
In a VOA article, the Kilimo Salama projected, funded by the Global Index Insurance Facility and the Syngenta Foundation, is cited for having provided insurance to about 200,000 farmers in east Africa, mainly in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. Because it is so expensive to verify losses on large numbers of small landholdings, the traditional type of individual loss-based insurance is not always viable. That has led to index-based insurance for smallholder farmers for weather-related risks. In the long run in the developing world, specialists say, what is needed most is investment in science and
ILO Partners Centre For Insurance To Train Operators
The International Labour Organisation (ILO)'s Impact Insurance Facility together with the Centre for Insurance and Financial Management Studies in Nigeria will be organising a training course for insurance practitioners from October 21 to 23, 2015 in Lagos. It is also being organised with the support of the Global Index Insurance Facility and in partnership with the GIZ of Germany. The training Unlock the demand for your products: How to deliver what your clients see as value” builds on a variety of resources that the ILO has produced during its six years of supporting innovation and research
Climate-linked Insurance a Boon for Poor Farmers
Poor farmers all over the world are increasingly falling prey to natural disasters, droughts and torrential rain largely due to climate change. But there is some good news as well. Thanks to new technologies, the widespread use of satellites, and more powerful computers, such events can largely be predicted in advance, thus making possible novel and more efficient insurance schemes for those at risk. In an interview with AFP, Gilles Galludec, Program Manager of the World Bank-run Global Index Insurance Facility discusses how index insurance schemes differ from traditional indemnity coverage in
Assessing Value from Index Insurance Products
The Joint GIIF-GAN Knowledge Sharing Forum “Assessing value from index insurance products” was organized by the Global Index Insurance Facility of the World Bank Group, USAID and Impact Insurance Facility of ILO in the morning of 16 September in Pacifica Headquarters in Paris. The client value of the cotton insurance project in Burkina Faso, implemented by PlaNet Guarantee, was assessed using 2 methodologies based on a double trigger approach. The scheme works on the average yield approach of the Group of Cotton Producers (GCP) and the yield of the neighbouring GCP in order to avoid all
Vulnerable Households Need Resilient Institutions in Disasters
In a CGAP blog, Thea Anderson and Muhammad Syahrin write that building disaster resilience in Indonesia is critical, as the country is battered by earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, flooding, and droughts on a regular basis. To this effect, MFIs serve as a critical and immediate vehicle to financing after disasters. Recognizing this ongoing cycle, Mercy Corps pioneered the Indonesia Liquidity Facility After Disaster (ILFAD), which has partnered with global reinsurer Swiss Re and the World Bank’s Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) to design portfolio-level insurance products in partnership
Innovative Microinsurance Protects Poor Farmers Against Climate Change
For several years, insuring harvests against the climate hazards that regularly destroy farmers’ crops in developing countries has for several years been a major tool in the fight against poverty, mainly in Africa and Asia, where between 400 and 500 million farmers survive on very low incomes. At the Convergences World Forum in Paris on 9 September 2015, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and GIIF speak about the innovations in index insurance and the success of the Kilimo Salama project in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania. Expanded in 2014, the program develops and offers insurance for
MicroEnsure – Providing Cover for the Under-insured Mass Markets in Africa
Peter Gross, Regional Director in Africa with MicroEnsure, talks to Bank Innovation online magazine about how MicroEnsure is providing micro-insurance to 15 million people in 17 countries in Africa and Asia. He explains that the reason for the poor uptake of insurance in these mass market economies can be boiled down to 4 factors: cost, trust (or lack of it), access (or lack of it), and understading (or lack of it). Click here to read the full interview.
2 Million African Farmers Insured For Weather & Catastrophe Risks: Swiss Re
One of the world’s largest reinsurance firms, Swiss Re, recently announced that two million African smallholder farmers are now protected against drought, floods and other natural perils, thanks to the efforts of the World Bank and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions.Back in 2012, Michel Lies, Swiss Re’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) made a commitment that by 2017 it would protect 1.4 million African smallholder farmers from weather and catastrophe risks, through increased insurance protection. And now the Switzerland-based reinsurer has revealed that not only has the amount of farmers covered
 IFC, Green Delta Stand by Farmers
International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Green Delta Insurance Company Ltd yesterday entered into an agreement to develop insurance products for farmers to protect them from weather-related losses. Advisory support will be provided for distributing the products, increasing lending to farmers and improving their risk profile. Kyle F Kelhofer, country manager of IFC, and Farzana Chowdhury, managing director of Green Delta, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations, according to a statement. “Crop insurance will protect rural economy. Weather-index insurance will help