South Asia

James Smouse, Head of Insurance, IFC
The 28th Indonesia Rendezvous, held from October 9-12 in Bali, brought together leading voices in Indonesia’s insurance sector to address the dynamic challenges and opportunities facing the industry today. Building on the foundation laid at the 26th Rendezvous, where discussions focused on “Recover Together, Recover Stronger” in alignment with Indonesia’s G20 Presidency, this year’s event took a step forward in exploring deeper aspects of climate resilience, regulatory collaboration, and innovative capital strategies under the theme, “Securing Stability & Unraveling Risk Impacting the
13
Oct
In 2014, GIIF started supporting CARD-Pioneer Microinsurance Inc (CPMI), a joint venture between CARD MRI and Pioneer Insurance in the Philippines, in developing, pricing and deployment of the country’s first private-sector led crop insurance product, named Binhi (“seed”). The goal with the project was to bring in technical support through actuarial experts from IFC, to analyze historical agricultural damage and weather data, to develop a risk-pricing system that would ultimately allow CPMI to strategically manage its typhoon risks and set a sustainable price for its customers.The agribusiness
31
Jan
IFC recently concluded two regional insurtech mapping studies in Africa and South-East Asia. The studies provided useful insights on industry trends and investable opportunities. Insurtech is reimagining insurance for incumbent (re)insurers and customers. Key trends include data-driven process optimization, industry-agnostic product development and cloud-based platforms . Usage-based personalized products and personalized customer service platforms such as offered by Naked Insurance are industry-agnostic and provide a large value add applicable across various insurance sectors. Remote claims
22
Oct
The Asosiasi Asuransi Umum Indonesia, the General Insurance Association of Indonesia, brought together regulators, practitioners, local and international (re)insurance companies at the 26 th Indonesia Rendezvous conference held in Indonesia between 12-15 October. The theme of this year's gathering ‘Toward Sustainable Future and Inclusive Growth’ is in line with the main theme of G20 Presidency of Indonesia ‘Recover Together, Recover Stronger.’ The G20 Presidency theme is a reflection of the pressure the world has been under due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it emphasizes the importance of
11
Dec
Despite the importance of the agricultural activities to the Indonesian economy ([13%] of GDP), livelihoods ([34%] of labor force), food security, and poverty reduction, the multiple risks associated with agricultural production – coupled with the general lack of knowledge and outreach to farmers/agriculture sector by financial institutions – have limited the needed levels of investment flows into the sector. Agri-lending in Indonesia accounts for a small portion of total lending, at [5.8%]. The risks aversion towards lending to farmers are well documented, including price fluctuations and
Knowledge Exchange Session on Weather Index Insurance in Zambia
On 24th November 2021, a virtual knowledge sharing session on Weather Index Insurance took place. This was jointly organized by the Pensions and Insurance Authority (PIA – the Zambian insurance regulator) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and targeted Zambian insurers who are currently exploring the expansion of this product line in Zambia for the benefit of smallholder farmers. Zambia currently has one of the largest index insurance schemes on the African continent, covering 1 million farmers on average each year. IFC has been involved in the development of this market since
How does Stellapps use technology to improve the livelihoods of smallholder dairy farmers? Stellapps is a farm to consumer dairy digitization service provider, improving productivity, quality and ensuring end-to-end traceability across the dairy supply chain. It leverages advanced analytics and artificial intelligence through its full-stack IoT platform to enable dairy ecosystem partnerships with financial & insurance institutions, veterinary services, cattle nutrition providers etc. to drive significant value for smallholder farmers and all stakeholders in the dairy value chain. Through its
IFA is an agriculture technology (AgTech) company based in Nepal, providing localized agriculture extension services enabled by Information Communications Technology (ICT). Its mission is to scale digital solutions for the agricultural last mile and improve smallholder’s financial inclusion, livelihood and climate resilience. IFA was awarded under the Sales & Distribution Category in the GIIF Agriculture Insurtech Challenge 2019. Watch the video here.
25
Jan
Agriculture Technologies (AgTechs) have demonstrated positive impact on improving the development of agriculture sector specially during the COVID-19 pandemic. By disrupting traditional supply chain, agtechs help to improve efficiency, reduce input cost, and increase farmers’ income by raising farm gate price, etc. Adopting and scaling up AgTechs can unleash the potential of the improvement in agriculture sector, which is of great significance to countries with high proportion of employment in this industry . India has 41.49% of its workforce employed in agriculture industry ( ILO 2020)
Aquaconnect is a technology venture that promotes sustainability through data-driven farm advisory and marketplace solutions for Aqua Farmers. Its AI-powered mobile application transforms real-time data collected from the farms into impactful insights. They provide end-to-end services like farm management assistance, on-ground support, formal finance, access to market leveraging players on the value chain. Aquaconnect was awarded under the Premiums & Claims category in the GIIF Agriculture Insurtech Challenge 2019. Watch the interview video here.