In june 2016, over 60 participants gathered at the College of insurance in Nairobi to discuss best practices and share their knowledge and expertise on index insurance, particularly livestock insurance and agriculture insurance. The discussions were quite timely, as the Government of Kenya recently allocated US$6 million for crop and livestock insurance for smallholder producers for next year, as one of the ‘key government flagship projects to drive the transformative agenda’. This is a five-fold increase in budget from the previous years with strong allocations toward data systems and premium

Data and information management refers to the development, collection, use, and preservation of data and the methods needed to acquire, control, protect, deliver, and enhance its value to achieve the goals of agricultural insurance programs. Issues related to the collection, development, updating, and quality of data are often overlooked when developing agricultural insurance programs. However, such programs will likely fail without a concise, well-developed plan for data and information management. Data is needed by those who develop, operate, and manage agricultural insurance programs. In

Satellite Technology and its continued advancement is critical to the relevance and accuracy of index insurance products as a counter against weather-related risks. The World Bank Group’s Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) in partnership with its regional partners has been working with researchers and scientists to refine satellite technology for index insurance product design.