Despite representing only a small portion of the total Property & Casualty market, parametric insurance has evolved rapidly in the last decade. This relatively new approach to insurance is index-based. At AXA, we believe that parametric insurance will continue to flourish in the future. Despite representing only a small portion of the total Property & Casualty market, parametric insurance has evolved rapidly in the last decade. This relatively new approach to insurance is index-based. For instance, in some geographies, claims could be paid out based on actual meteorological conditions measured

GIIF, a member of the World Bank Group, signed two grant agreements, with a combined value of $3.9 million, with the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture to expand index-based insurance to small-scale farmers in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. Index-based weather insurance can protect against the adverse effects of climate change and help to strengthen food security in rural communities.

Is index insurance poised for a great leap forward similar to the rapid growth experienced by microfinance and credit bureaus in the 1990s? Index insurance clearly holds a lot of promise to help unlock productivity gains and protect farmers all around the world. Index insurance is for insuring farmers, MSMEs and individuals what credit scoring was for consumer and small business lending - a huge opportunity to make financial services much more widely available at lower cost by using smart analytics and data. In this sense, index insurance may be even more promising than microcredit because the

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.

Fifty-five year old Niyitegeka Veneranda lives in rural Rwanda. She and her husband are parents to seven children and grandparents to five. They farm less than a hectare of their own land, yet she has been able to build a small house, feed her family, and send her last three children to school. She expanded her rice production recently with a loan from a local bank made possible through agricultural insurance, and plans to expand her acreage with another loan next year.

Niyitegeka Veneranda, 55 ans, est agricultrice au Rwanda. Elle a sept enfants et cinq petits-enfants. Alors qu’elle possède moins d’un hectare de terrain avec son mari, elle a réussi a construire une petite maison, à nourrir sa famille et à envoyer se trois plus jeunes enfants à l’école. Grâce à une assurance agricole, elle a obtenu un prêt d’une banque locale qui lui a permis d’accroître sa production de riz, et elle prévoit de demander un autre prêt l’année prochaine pour étendre encore sa surface cultivable.

Big players such as Swiss Re plan to offer farmers in Africa, Asia and other emerging markets insurance products linked to weather indexes. Wagering on the weather might become a global business. Just ask the Climate Corp., an underwriter of insurance plans for farmers. Full article here

* World Bank announces $1.7 million funding for program * Designed to insure against hurricanes like Sandy in 2012 By Susana Ferreira PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 29 (Reuters) - When Hurricane Sandy struck Haiti late last year, the home Guerda Pierre shares with her three children and mother in Cabaret, north of Port-au-Prince, was flooded - and so was the merchandise she sold to make a living. "The books, the food, everything was wet after Sandy," said Pierre. The plantain plants and beans in her garden were also destroyed. But unlike the majority of Haitians, Pierre had an insurance policy.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group through its Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), has entered into a project agreement with SANASA Insurance Company Ltd, to support the development and use of flexible and affordable weather index insurance products to help minimize the impact of crop losses due to floods or droughts on farmer livelihoods. The project objective is to expand access to insurance for food crops such as rice and in turn offer protection for up to 15,000 small-scale farmers against weather-related risks and natural disasters. The project will also raise awareness amongst 50

PlaNet Guarantee, member of the PlaNet Finance Group, and the GIIF come together to launch the first regional management platform for index insurance. The objective is to cover 60 000 farmers in West Africa by 2015. While agriculture remains the main economic sector in West Africa (on average 30% of the GDP of countries in the region and 70% of the workforce), no risk management tool is offered to farmers to secure their income. In case of drought, floods, or due to other factors that could cause a significant drop in yields, farmers currently receive no form of protection. The traditional