In a blog posted on the World Bank Group's Voices, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, Senior Director in the Finance & Markets Global Practices, wrote that "strengthening women’s role in finance is one of the keys to boosting economic growth." 1.1 billion women worldwide (about 42% of the global female population) remain unbanked or have little access to finance, and this fact poses economic and developmental challenges. Click here to read the blog and more about the new World Bank Group's Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).

Simon Kilgour and Mick McArdle at CMS Law-Now have penned an article suggesting that index insurance is gaining momentum in Africa. The article also discusses pros and cons of the innovative insurance provision.

In a press release ahead of the G20 summit, Peter Höppe, Chairman of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) and Head of Geo Risks Research/Corporate Climate Centre at Munich Re said, " It is high time that G20 nations take responsibility to support the most vulnerable countries in their fight against climate change and the increasingly severe impacts of floods, heatwaves and changing weather patterns." "One major milestone would be a climate insurance partnership that helps vulnerable and poor countries and communities better cushion the impacts of extreme climatic events," he added

The World Bank’s Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) has commended Africa Reinsurance Corporation (Africa Re) for educating over six million people on risk management, Vanguard Reports. In June 2017, GIIF and Africa Re were speaking before the audience at the European Development Days in Brussels. Representatives from AXA, The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, and the National Agricultural Insurance Company of Senegal also joined the panel. Listen to the recording here.

Ethiopian pastoralists have received payouts for index-based livestock insurance offered by a local insurance company, Thomson Reuters Foundation reports. In Ethiopia, livestock insurance schemes were initiated by the International Livestock Research Institute, which has been providing technical support for the design and monitoring of the index in the country, the report adds.

AXA Global Parametrics is looking to offer its parametric insurance product in the Philippines, primarily targeting the local agriculture sector, Busines World Online reports. “In the Philippines, we don’t offer any products yet but we are working...[with] companies, partners to try to sell the product across the Philippines,” AXA Philippines Chief General Insurance Officer Claude Seigne said in the interview.

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 its Annual Meetings in Ahmedabad in May, the African Development Bank (AfDB) identified political will as one of the key ingredients to the continent's agricultural agenda, AllAfrica reports. According to AfDB President, other key strategies the AfDB is proposing are the development of industrial agri-businesses to raise productivity in the sector and ultimately support economic growth. In addition, the region needs to support its young people who are providing weather index insurance and extension services.

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

Reinsurance and insurance stakeholders in Sub-Saharan Africa say momentum for index insurance solutions in the region continues to grow, Reinsurancenews reports. Speaking ahead of the 10th Consultative Forum on building disaster resilience amongst small-scale farmers through agricultural index insurance, FSB Chair of the IAIS Regional Committee for Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “agricultural index insurance in Sub-Saharan Africa is gaining momentum."