Despite significant efforts made towards greater food security in the last decade, there remain millions of poor people in developing nations who suffer from chronic hunger. Boosting agricultural output is critical to mitigating this enormous development challenge. In recent years index-insurance has emerged as a widely recognized and powerful innovative tool that can help farmers manage financial losses arising from climate change and natural disasters.

The World Bank Group’s Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), a multi-donor trust fund established in 2009, supports the development and growth of local markets for index-insurance in developing countries. Through its advisory platform, GIIF has to date helped several hundreds of thousands of small farmers and agribusinesses across Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific, to counter climate-related risks and become more productive and financially stable.

GIIF, which recognizes the critical importance of public-private partnerships in further scaling up index-insurance solutions in emerging markets, has recently forged new partnerships with leading private sector insurance and microfinance institutions globally, namely AXA Corporate Solutions, Grameen Crédit Agricole, and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions.

A key output of such partnerships was the recently launched online knowledge platform – www.indexinsuranceforum.org – that features knowledge products, research and discussions on the development of innovative insurance solutions and serves as an important hub for exchanging best practices and lessons learned.

"We are committed to making continued intellectual and financial investments in innovative tools that reduce losses and improve financial security. This partnership enables us to be an active link in the global food supply chain through knowledge initiatives that will pave the way forward for the index-insurance industry," said Philippe Rocard, CEO of AXA Corporate Solutions.

Christina Ulardic, Head, Market Development for Africa at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions added, “Building on our decade-long experience in developing index insurance products aimed at addressing climate risks in emerging markets, we see the need to identify innovative ways to scale and reach a larger client base. We hope that this partnership will contribute to solving this challenge.”

"Index-insurance is an important risk management tool for smallholder farmers since it not only protects them from incurring major losses and boosting agricultural productivity but also creates more opportunities for accessing credit facilities, improving the overall food security framework. We are glad that now we can share and disseminate best practices through this virtual space," said Jean-Luc Perron, Managing Director of Grameen Crédit Agricole.

The format of engagement for the knowledge partnership will include: knowledge sharing through dissemination of information on various index-insurance programs; market intelligence sharing through GIIF’s grantee and partner network; technical collaboration through sharing of best practices on product design and relevant technical data; networking and communications support for increased access to industry events and technical forums; and active participation in GIIF’s recently launched community of index-insurance practitioners.

More information on GIIF’s knowledge partnerships can be found at: www.indexinsuranceforum.org