On Wednesday, December 14th 2016, The World Bank and FAO hosted a webinar entitled Agricultural Investment Funds for Development: comparative analysis and lessons-learned. Calvin Miller, Agricultural and rural finance expert and former team leader of the Agribusiness and Finance Group at FAO, and Toshiaki Ono, Financial Sector Specialist, WBG's Finance & Markets discussed the unique features of these agricultural investment funds and how they yield positive financial return as well as development impact. Their study will be published by FAO next year. Key lessons-learned from the study and

In its new publication "Helping farmers understand index insurance: Guidelines for consumer education interventions", International L abour Organisation’s Impact Insurance Facility gathered lessons and insights from index insurance and financial education projects, as well as from the field of behavioural economics, and put together guidelines for index insurance education to support the industry. T he Global Action Network to advance agriculture insurance (GAN) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also contributed to the Paper. Seven guidelines for index

More than 30 participants from seven African nations gathered in Johannesburg for two weeks in October 2016 to focus on the fundamentals of index insurance, and to discuss a wide array of development-related topics ranging from product design to project management. The workshop, entitled “Agriculture Insurance Training,” was organized by the World Bank Group’s Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF). Co-managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), GIIF provides smallholder farmers, rural residents, microentrepreneurs and microfinance institutions with access to finance through the

In a case study, GIIF's Partner ACRE Africa reports that the project has helped Edward and Pauline Mkopi in Kenya protect their crops with weather index, area yield, and hybrid insurance. After several seasons of drought and excess rainfall, the Mkopis say "they now confidently invest in their maize and sunflower farm because they know they are insured against all kinds of risk." They also feel confident in working with ACRE Africa because the product relies on accurate data to determine how to do payouts.

Munich Re Foundation and Microinsurance Network have released a report that provides an insight on Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) as a distribution channel for microinsurance in Asia. " The study shows that there are an estimated 2.6 billion SIM cards activated through various carriers in the Asian region. Two Technical Service Providers (TSPs), BIMA and MicroEnsure, and eight MNOs which carry out distribution of Mobile Microinsurance (MMI) were identified in the region. The total number of lives covered, through these MNOs, stood at a total of 40.3 million by mid-2016, based on available

Munich Re Foundation and Microinsurance Network have released a report on t he Landscape of Microinsurance in The landscape of microinsurance in Sri Lanka . " Microinsurance in Sri Lanka initially started as a service to support the microfinance sector, focusing on providing loan protection, insurance and life savings. The insurance business extended their services to provide welfare and health products to low-income people. With almost 24% of the population living on less than USD 2 a day (World Bank Statistics, 2015), it was found that health is the largest risk faced by poor households

A newly designed Global Index Insurance Facility's Country Profile for Sri Lanka is available for digital viewing . The document contains an overview of GIIF's project in Sri Lanka and partner, Sanasa Insurance Company Ltd. (SICL).

A newly designed Global Index Insurance Facility's Country Profile for the Philippines is available for digital viewing . The document contains an overview of GIIF's project in the Philippines and partners, CARD Pioneer Microinsurance (CPMI) and CARD Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI).

A newly designed Global Index Insurance Facility's Country Profile for Indonesia is available for digital viewing . The document contains an overview of GIIF's project in Indonesia and partner, PT Reasuransi MAIPARK.

On October 11, 2016, Joseph A. Owuor of The Insurance Regulatory Authority of Kenya presented a presentation entitled "Kenyan Experience with Parametric Insurance" at a workshop in Guatemala. Aimed at raising awareness on parametric insurance among supervisory authorities in Latin America and the Caribbean , t he First Regional Workshop on Parametric Insurance was put together by Microinsurance Catastrophe Risk Organisation (Micro) and participated by many stakeholders such as Access to Insurance Initiative, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (Columbia University)