Parametric insurance has the potential to serve a significant developmental role in Africa, as it pays out benefits based on a predetermined index for losses resulting from catastrophic events, Clyde & Co's Max Ebrahim and Wynne Lawrence wrote in Commercial Risk Online . In the article, GIIF's collaboration with ACRE Africa , which is serving the populations in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania, is also cited.

At the 44th African Insurance Organization (AIO) conference recently held in Uganda, participants suggested that the agriculture has potential that regional insurers are yet to tap, All Africa reports . Shadrack Mapfumo, GIIF Senior Financial Sector Specialist, was also quoted at the conference as saying, "Insurance companies should invest more money in crop varieties such as maize," arguing that this would help secure farmers from poor harvests. "Even that crop variety that insurance companies say is not insurable, [it can be insured] only that because they [insurers] have not studied it. We...

Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance will start selling insurance products that compensate farmers hit by drought in Indonesia as early as this fall, Asian Nikkei Review reports . With a premium of 50,000 rupiahs ($3.76), contract farmers will be entitled to be compensated 500,000 rupiahs if a drought occurs, the newspaper also details.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and specialist reinsurance company Reasuransi MAIPARK Indonesia have agreed to develop insurance products to help local farmers mitigate weather-related risks, Jakarta Globe reports . The agreement will establish insurance schemes that pay out benefits to farmers if a weather event exceeds levels in a predetermined index — which will measure rainfall levels, temperatures, wind speeds and crop yields, expected to provide cheaper and less complicated insurance benefits to farmers in the event of a natural disaster. "The region's changing climate has...