Job creation and economic growth through private sector development have become primary areas of focus for policy makers around the world in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Recent evidence points to the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)1 in providing employment across countries. In addition to employing the largest number of people in aggregate, SMEs generate the most new jobs (Ayyagari et al., 2011). But SMEs also face many challenges in day-to-day operations and to grow. Access to finance is often cited as one of the primary obstacles that affect SMEs

Index-based contracts are crucial innovations on the micro-insurance market. By making the contract contingent on the value taken by an objective and exogenous index, parties should manage to minimize transaction costs, in particular those due to imperfect and asymmetric information. In turn this innovation should allow poor people traditionally excluded from this market to have access to some insurance, most notably agricultural smallholders. In the last decade, many pilot programs have been set up throughout the developing world to evaluate index-based insurance products. So far, the

What innovations can help bankers in developing countries who wish to finance agricultural small and medium enterprises (SMEs)? This report tries to answer this question by isolating promising cases of emergent and innovative financing, risk mitigation, and distribution models. The paper identifies key elements observed across case studies. In the report, case studies are documented, models are observed, and patterns are determined. The report primarily addresses private sector financial institutions in developing countries and therefore focuses on models from the private sector perspective.

Full Publication Across the developing world, a new kind of business is emerging to serve and benefit the poor. It is known by many names: market-based solutions to poverty, inclusive businesses, impact enterprises, social enterprises, or enterprises serving the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP). Many are giving poor households access to beneficial goods and services, by bringing safe drinking water to slums, powering villages in deep rural areas, delivering high-quality but low-cost surgical procedures, or boosting educational attainment at affordable prices. Others are enhancing the livelihoods of

Asia and the Pacific region has one of the highest exposures of any region in the world to natural hazards including typhoons, floods, landslides, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. Weather-related risks, particularly hurricanes, flooding and drought, are a frequent occurrence and affect crop yields, livelihoods and assets, and the personal safety of vulnerable groups across the region. The frequency with which these disasters occur often taxes the ability of such groups to rebound quickly, increasing their risk of hunger and malnutrition. Low-cost agricultural insurance

Full Publication Mobile communications can help to meet the challenge of feeding an estimated 9.2 billion people by 2050. The 12 specific opportunities explored in this study could increase agricultural income by around $138 billion across 26 of Vodafone’s markets in 2020. Connected agriculture could also reduce carbon emissions and reduce water consumed in irrigation. This report, co-authored by Accenture, Vodafone and Oxfam, aims to stimulate the necessary engagement between mobile operators, governments, non-profits and businesses to realize these opportunities and explore others.

Full Publication This pre-feasibility report was prepared for the Ford Foundation by Jason Hartell of GlobalAgRisk, Inc., Ntongi McFadyen of the Livelihoods Department of Save the Children, USA, and Jerry Skees of GlobalAgRisk, Inc., under Ford Grant No. 1100-0121 and IIEF Program No. FF-5H016. GlobalAgRisk is a policy-oriented firm with close ties to the University of Kentucky. Our work is supported by international donors who recognize the importance of markets in transferring natural disaster risk as a means for developing and enhancing access to financial service by the productive poor

The weather is unreliable. It impacts agricultural production in many ways. Poor yields and crop damage due to adverse weather can lead to lower revenues for farmers. This can lead to difficulty in paying back loans and meeting household expenses. Weather Index Insurance is a new tool for farmers to protect themselves and their lenders against the financial impact of bad weather.

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