Kenya

Weathering the Risks: Scalable Weather Index Insurance in East Africa
Having enough food in East Africa depends largely on the productivity of smallholder farms, which in turn depends on farmers’ ability to invest in their farms. Weather insurance can encourage farmers to make these critical investments by improving their access to credit. The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF)—an IFC/IBRD collaboration housed under IFC’s Access to Finance’s Global Retail/Microfinance Cluster—is an innovative program that is expanding access to insurance against weather risks and natural disasters to farmers, livestock herders, and others, particularly in Africa and the

The Syngenta Foundation’s Kilimo Salama weather index insurance program has taken off in Kenya and has recently expanded to Rwanda and Tanzania. Beginning in 2009 with a pilot project offering index insurance to 200 farmers, at last count 51,000 farmers in Kenya and 14,000 farmers in Rwanda have the insurance. In 2011, Kilimo Salama’s partner UAP Insurance collected KSh 19 million in premium payments, and premium revenue has nearly doubled to KSh 33 million in just the first six months of 2012. These premium volumes are approaching levels than can make index insurance economically sustainable

Syngenta Foundation and IFC’s Global Index Insurance Facility Mark 100,000 Farmer Milestone for African Weather Insurance
Nairobi, Kenya, April 22, 2013—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, announced that a Kenyan partner of the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), a program managed by IFC and jointly implemented with IBRD, reached a major milestone in April 2013 in improving income security for 100,000 farmers by providing them with insurance against adverse weather. The milestone was reached through the work of Kilimo Salama, a social enterprise launched by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture with the support of GIIF. Started with only 185 farmers in Kenya in 2009, Kilimo Salama allowed
Crop insurance for farmers likely to boost food security
Thousands of farmers in Moiben, Eldoret have always known that drought comes after every 10 years. But every once in a while the pattern is broken and they are caught off-guard as was the case in 1984 and in 2009. However, in the midst of the dark clouds of hunger, there was a silver lining that got them smiling last year— a crop insurance product that promised to change their fortunes. This is a first for small-scale farmers in Kenya who produce more than 70 per cent of the country’s food output.
Index-based livestock insurance is designed to cater for pastoral communities in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) of Northern Kenya. Currently the project is being implemented in Marsabit Northern Kenya. The target clients are individual pastoralists; both large and small scale. Since the pastoral livestock depend on the pastures as the only source of food, an index -based livestock insurance that monitors the forage availability through satellites and relates this to livestock deaths was picked as the best option. Livestock insurance is critical in drought-prone countries like Kenya. In 2011, Kenya suffered one of the worst droughts in its history which killed up to 30% of the country's livestock in some of the divisions in Northern Kenya. The Government of Kenya (2000) indicates that 60% of Kenya’s livestock are found in the pastoralist land, valued at approximately $6 billion, with an annual milk value of between $67 - $107 million.
ACRE Africa (formerly the Kilimo Salama project of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture) is having an active project in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The largest private sector index-based insurance program in Kenya and Africa develops and offers insurance for African farmers (smallholder to large-scale commercial farmers) so that they can feel confident investing in their farms and feed their communities. The initiative has designed insurance products to cover a variety of crops against drought, erratic rain, and disease. is an insurance initiative of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. It develops and offers insurance for African farmers (smallholder to large-scale commercial farmers) so that they can feel confident investing in their farms and feed their communities. The initiative has designed insurance products to cover a variety of crops against drought, erratic rain, and disease.

The Insurance Regulatory Authority of Kenya (IRA) requested financial, technical, the human resources assistance from GIIF for a legal and regulatory review as well as some assistance in drafting a new legal and regulatory framework for microinsurance and index-insurance. IRA also expressed an urgent need for assistance in building its technical capacity and the promotion of consumer awareness and insurance understanding.