Pacific Island countries will have better access to catastrophe insurance to reduce financial impacts in the aftermath of natural disasters, including major cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis, as a result of a new regional disaster risk finance project in Fiji, a World Bank's press release reports. The US$29.73 million project - PCRAFI: Furthering Disaster Risk Finance in the Pacific - builds on eight years of regional collaboration through the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Insurance Initiative (PCRAFI), and shared experiences from similar catastrophe risk pools supported by the

At the 9th Consultative Forum on Insurance for Smallholder Farmers in March 2017 in Singapore, Craig Thorburn, World Bank Group's Lead Financial Sector Specialist, said while beneficial and expanding across the globe, it is essential that there be great supervision for index-based or parametric insurance. “Policymakers, insurers, and regulators should sit together to develop new strategies and index-based insurance solutions,” said Dr. Yoshihiro Kawai, Secretary General of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), Artemis reports.

Driven by the success of its parametric solutions, AXA accelerates the development of these products by launching AXA Global Parametrics that will broaden the range of solutions to better serve existing customers and expand its scope to SMEs and individuals. To lead this new entity, Tanguy Touffut, previously Global Head of Parametric Insurance at AXA Corporate Solutions, was appointed CEO of AXA Global Parametrics, effective March 1st. Parametric insurance is based on the use of a parameter correlated to a client’s damages or losses. A wide variety of risks can be covered through parametric

Tens of thousands of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia have benefited from the country's first weather index insurance payment to cover the loss for the previous year's crop failure due to El Nino, AllAfrica reports. The weather index insurance payouts of 2.6 million birr were part of the pilot insurance initiative supported by UNDP, the Global Environment Facility, the country's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

A $1.4 million grant from USAID is funding a University of California's project that will use a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the impacts of combining programs that offer training, support, and aid with affordable insurance in Kenya. According to UC Davis , the new project is led by Michael Carter, a professor of agricultural and resource economics and director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Assets and Market Access at UC Davis, and Dr. Andrew Mude from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya. Last year, Dr. Mude received the World Food Prize

Thomson Reuters Foundation reports that thousands of pastoralists across six counties in northern and eastern Kenya will get payouts this month under the Kenyan government's subsidized livestock insurance scheme. The disbursement will total nearly 215 million Kenyan shillings ($2.08 million), according to the article. Recently, the Government declared a national disaster after more than 2.7 million people across half of the country have been affected by a severe drought, the worst in six years. The Kenya Livestock Insurance Program (KLIP), launched last year, was developed by Kenya's Ministry

Ms. Fatou Assah (left) , Program Manager of the WBG's Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), and Mr. Antoine Bavadi (right) , Financial Sector Specialist from the Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance (DRFI) Program, spoke at the 41st General Assembly of FANAF (African Federation of Insurance Companies for African national law) on February 14. 2017 in Marrakech. The World Bank experts were sharing their international experiences with index insurance and catastrophic risk financing as risk management tools to protect communities from natural disasters and environmental hazards. The panel

WASHINGTON, February 14, 2017 - The World Bank Group’s Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) and African Reinsurance Corporation (Africa Re) have entered into an agreement to carry out a risk-sharing facility, in form of an experience account, to decrease premium levels for insured farmers and encourage local companies to create affordable insurance products. “Agriculture provides up to 60 percent of all jobs on the continent, but African farmers need greater access to insurance mechanisms to develop resilience to external shocks and protect their livelihoods,” said Makhtar Diop, World Bank

Australian farmers who took up multi-peril crop insurance claim it helped them sleep at night, not worrying about a third failed harvest, ABC News reports. The Australian Government is working to support the development of a more diverse and mature agricultural insurance market, including multi-peril crop insurance, the report also adds.

Compagnie Nationale d’Assurance Agricole du Sénégal (CNAAS) has selected Africa Re, the most prominent African Reinsurer, to lead the reinsurance program of 40,000 cotton and maize farmers in Senegal, jointly with AXA CS and CICA Re, according to a press release issued by Africa Re. The news indicates a positive development in the agriculture sector in Senegal, which accounts for 35% of annual GDP, as the country is facing several climate-related risks including drought and floods, undermining food production and jeopardizing food security. The development of index insurance in Senegal can be