What innovations can help bankers in developing countries who wish to finance agricultural small and medium enterprises (SMEs)? This report tries to answer this question by isolating promising cases of emergent and innovative financing, risk mitigation, and distribution models. The paper identifies key elements observed across case studies. In the report, case studies are documented, models are observed, and patterns are determined. The report primarily addresses private sector financial institutions in developing countries and therefore focuses on models from the private sector perspective.

Full Publication Across the developing world, a new kind of business is emerging to serve and benefit the poor. It is known by many names: market-based solutions to poverty, inclusive businesses, impact enterprises, social enterprises, or enterprises serving the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP). Many are giving poor households access to beneficial goods and services, by bringing safe drinking water to slums, powering villages in deep rural areas, delivering high-quality but low-cost surgical procedures, or boosting educational attainment at affordable prices. Others are enhancing the livelihoods of

Asia and the Pacific region has one of the highest exposures of any region in the world to natural hazards including typhoons, floods, landslides, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. Weather-related risks, particularly hurricanes, flooding and drought, are a frequent occurrence and affect crop yields, livelihoods and assets, and the personal safety of vulnerable groups across the region. The frequency with which these disasters occur often taxes the ability of such groups to rebound quickly, increasing their risk of hunger and malnutrition. Low-cost agricultural insurance

Full Publication Mobile communications can help to meet the challenge of feeding an estimated 9.2 billion people by 2050. The 12 specific opportunities explored in this study could increase agricultural income by around $138 billion across 26 of Vodafone’s markets in 2020. Connected agriculture could also reduce carbon emissions and reduce water consumed in irrigation. This report, co-authored by Accenture, Vodafone and Oxfam, aims to stimulate the necessary engagement between mobile operators, governments, non-profits and businesses to realize these opportunities and explore others.

Full Publication This pre-feasibility report was prepared for the Ford Foundation by Jason Hartell of GlobalAgRisk, Inc., Ntongi McFadyen of the Livelihoods Department of Save the Children, USA, and Jerry Skees of GlobalAgRisk, Inc., under Ford Grant No. 1100-0121 and IIEF Program No. FF-5H016. GlobalAgRisk is a policy-oriented firm with close ties to the University of Kentucky. Our work is supported by international donors who recognize the importance of markets in transferring natural disaster risk as a means for developing and enhancing access to financial service by the productive poor

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

The weather is unreliable. It impacts agricultural production in many ways. Poor yields and crop damage due to adverse weather can lead to lower revenues for farmers. This can lead to difficulty in paying back loans and meeting household expenses. Weather Index Insurance is a new tool for farmers to protect themselves and their lenders against the financial impact of bad weather.

Having enough food in East Africa depends largely on the productivity of smallholder farms, which in turn depends on farmers’ ability to invest in their farms. Weather insurance can encourage farmers to make these critical investments by improving their access to credit. The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF)—an IFC/IBRD collaboration housed under IFC’s Access to Finance’s Global Retail/Microfinance Cluster—is an innovative program that is expanding access to insurance against weather risks and natural disasters to farmers, livestock herders, and others, particularly in Africa and the

Food security is a critical phenomenon amongst developing countries. Most nations are now placing greater emphasis on crop insurance as a means of managing farming risk and enhancing food security. With Southern Africa having been hit by weather hazards such as floods and drought over the past few decades and its agricultural output continuing its downward plunge, the paper explores the relevancy of crop insurance in enhancing food security and facilitating agricultural productivity in Zimbabwe.

Index insurance is a relatively new but innovative approach to insurance provision that pays out benefits on the basis of a pre determined index (e.g. rainfall level) for loss of assets and investments, primarily working capital, resulting from weather and catastrophic events, without requiring the traditional services of insurance claims assessors. It also allows for the claims settlement processes to be quicker and more objective. Before the start of the insurance period, a statistical index is developed measuring deviations from the normal level of parameters such as rainfall, temperature