Europe and Central Asia

03
Feb
Key findings from the Global expert workshop co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands and the Rabobank Group and organized by the World Bank’s FISF initiative. Workshop report including links to presentations made at the workshop is available here: Report on Financial Inclusion of Agriculture-Dependent Households Need to focus on broader array of financial services rather than just credit or insurance for agricultural production. Agricultural households have a broad range of financial service needs, several of them for lifecycle and business needs not related to agriculture
19
Jan
This post was originally produced during the GIIF Conference held in Paris at the OECD Headquarters. The 6 key lessons learnt that emerge from the panel are as follows: Insurance needs to be part of a value add package that generates higher income for the farmers Governments play a key role in creating markets for agricultural insurance. Experiences in Peru, India and Senegal point to government interventions such as premium support, risk financing, and linkage to credit. There is a need to design and offer the right insurance product. Area Yield Index Insurance may offer an adequate
New Trends in Agricultual Finance
Agricultural finance is crucial to support the growth of the agricultural sector. Indeed, it is essential for food security, job creation, and overall economic growth. This synthesis report presents a summary of research studies on five key areas of agricultural finance innovation prepared under the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), as well as the presentations and discussions of these study findings during the “G20 Roundtable on Innovations in Agricultural Finance” convened on September 9, 2015 in Antalya, Turkey by the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Finance Sub-Group
24
Nov
Interview with Xavier Gine, Lead Economist within the World Bank Research Department (DEC). 1/ What do we know about index insurance after about 10 years of experience? There has been a lot of research around the question of take-up and impact of index insurance. Despite the potentially large welfare benefits, voluntary take-up of index insurance products has been rather limited so far. Explanations for this low demand could include: The first reason is that the product may be expensive, relative to the existing risk coping strategies. After all, when it is not subsidized as is the case for
Interview with Gloria Grandolini, F&M GP Senior Director, World Bank Group Over the last 10 years , our work at the World Bank Group (WBG) has led to over 35 million farmers benefiting from new or improved insurance products. The WBG recognizes the importance of making available financial solutions, particularly insurance instruments to compensate for losses following adverse natural events.
20
Jul
What happens when a major national development organization – GIZ and a leading private insurer – Allianz SE get together to build innovation in micro-insurance? Watch full video of the event here Experts presented key insights on micro-insurance with a larger view on how these lessons learnt can be applied to other inclusive insurance projects and to various other sectors. The 60 minute session showcased case-studies ranging from how GIZ has assisted Allianz in turning a corporate responsibility charitable micro-insurance story into a fully-fledged and profitable micro-insurance business
Launch of Online Knowledge Platform focused on Index-Insurance
The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), part of the World Bank Group’s Finance and Markets Global Practice, will launch indexinsuranceforum.org, an online knowledge platform for index-insurance practitioners globally on January 20, 2015. The official launch event will be held in the ACP Secretariat in Brussels, Belgium and will see GIIF’s key donors, including the European Union and The African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) Group, in attendance. The platform features knowledge products, research and discussions on key issues related to the development of innovative index-insurance
Index Insurance for Developing Countries
Unlike conventional insurance, which indemnifies policyholders for verifiable production losses arising from multiple perils, index insurance indemnifies policyholders based on the observed value of a specified “index” or some other closely related variable that is highly correlated with losses. Index insurance exhibits lower transaction costs than conventional insurance, potentially making it more affordable to the poor in the developing world. However, it also offers less effective individual risk protection. This article provides a review of recent theoretical and empirical research on index insurance for developing countries and summarizes lessons learned from index insurance projects implemented in the developing world since 2000
EC approaches to Disaster Risk Reduction in Africa
EC approaches to Disaster Risk Reduction in Africa DevelopmentDG DevelopmentUnit B2 Unit –Policies for Sustainable Management of Natural Resources Presented by: Wim Olthof
Agricultural Insurance Schemes
Full Publication Agricultural producers face a series of risks affecting the income and welfare of their households. These are mainly production risks related to: weather conditions, pests and diseases, market conditions etc. Consequently, the income stability of agricultural stakeholders can be also affected. In the last years the European Union is considering a possible integration of risk management in the Common Agricultural Policy and is analysing risk and crisis management strategies to provide an improved response to crises in the agricultural sector. This report makes a review of the