According to the research from ISF Advisor (2018), only 20% of smallholder farmers in the developing countries have access to agricultural insurance coverage, and in sub-Saharan Africa this falls further to just 3%. Blockchain is a transformative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) that have the potential to revolutionize how data is used for agriculture insurance and enable smallholder-inclusive value chain development. Blockchains are essentially immutable digital ledgers that can be used to securely record all transactions taking place on a given network. Such technological...

The livestock sector supports livelihoods of some 60% of rural households made up of 1.7 billion people worldwide. Currently, the World Bank has US$1.9 billion in active investments in improving livestock sector and enhancing pastoral livelihoods mostly in Africa, South Asia and Central Asia. The Sahel region of Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly, has a strong tradition of animal rearing. Livestock sector contributes to one-third to half of agriculture GDP in many Sahelian countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger as well as Mauritania and Chad. Despite pastoralism being a major economic...

In the previous part , we brought to your attention rural women’s needs to access to insurance, and related research to better understand the importance of gender-responsive insurance products to mitigate women’s financial and health risks. In this Part II, we’ll provide detailed information on emerging trends on this topic. Digital financial services A 2019 study by CTA and Dalberg Advisors found nearly 400 different digital agriculture solutions working across the continent reaching 33 million registered farmers, demonstrating the market potential. There is no doubt that COVID-19 has...

In recent decade, an increasingly number of insurtech solution firms, mobile network operators and other innovators are brought into the insurance industry to harness power of new data and technology to catalyze innovation to reduce costs and increase client value. As one of the key pillars of the GIIF Program, innovation is central to realize the full potential of GIIF in closing the last mile protection gap with the aim to increase livelihoods of farmers and low-income families through improved access to knowledge, institutions (financial services and inputs, etc.) and markets. In July 2019...

This 2-part article focuses on rural women’s needs to access to insurance, and related research to better understand the importance of gender-responsive insurance products to mitigate women’s financial and health risks. In this Part, you will read about the current context with references to research and emerging trends. Part II will provide a deeper view of these trends in the agricultural insurance sector, with examples from the field. Worldwide, women represent an emerging customer segment for insurance with high growth potential, and there is an increasing interest among insurers and...

One billion out of the world’s 1.2 billion youth (age 15-24) live in developing countries. Africa will represent the youngest region in the 21 st century at the time when the western population continues to age and by 2050, one-third of global youth will be in Sub-Saharan Africa. IFAD predicts that Africa’s share of the global rural youth population is expected to rise from 20% to 37% in the next 30 years , and agriculture remains the main source of employment for them in most low and middle-income countries. Of the 25 million young people entering the labor market in the region every year,...

Although the industry direct and indirect losses from COVID-19 have not been studied systematically, 2020 marked a difficult and transformative year for the insurance sector. As part of containment measures imposed by the governments to curb the spread of the virus, economies worldwide were forced into lockdown causing inevitable second-order effects of supply chain disruptions, business closure, loss in income and jobs leading to third-order effects of poverty and food insecurity intensifying in the vulnerable communities. In fact, using the latest dataset, the World Bank recently released...

The Partnership Forum is the annual meeting of the InsuResilience Global Partnership, bringing together all members and partners, from governments to representatives of international organizations, civil society, the private sector and academia. The Partnership Forum serves as platform to exchange experience and knowledge and to raise awareness about climate risk finance and insurance. As an active member in this Global Partnership, GIIF participated in this year’s forum together with its long-term implementation partner ACRE Africa. The event was held as a 4-day virtual event from 7-10...

Agriculture Technologies (AgTechs) have demonstrated positive impact on improving the development of agriculture sector specially during the COVID-19 pandemic. By disrupting traditional supply chain, agtechs help to improve efficiency, reduce input cost, and increase farmers’ income by raising farm gate price, etc. Adopting and scaling up AgTechs can unleash the potential of the improvement in agriculture sector, which is of great significance to countries with high proportion of employment in this industry . India has 41.49% of its workforce employed in agriculture industry ( ILO 2020 )...

The climate of Madagascar favors a wide range of agricultural activity, including crop and livestock production, fishery and forestry. In addition, approximately 70 percent of the total land area is arable ( FAO 2016 ) and the agricultural sector makes a significant contribution to the economy: at least 23 percent of the country’s GDP and 64 percent of total employment can be attributed to the sector ( ILO 2020 ). Most agricultural production is driven by smallholder farmers, who make up about 70 percent of the farming population ( FAO 2019 ). However, due its geographical location and the...