General

Facilitating Dialogue on Index Insurance Between the Public and Private Sector
In June 2016, over 60 participants gathered at the College of insurance in Nairobi to discuss best practices and share their knowledge and expertise on index insurance, particularly livestock insurance and agriculture insurance. The discussions were quite timely, as the Government of Kenya recently allocated US$6 million for crop and livestock insurance for smallholder producers for next year, as one of the ‘key government flagship projects to drive the transformative agenda’. This is a five-fold increase in budget from the previous years with strong allocations toward data systems and premium
Activity Snapshot: Facilitating Dialogue on Index insurance between the Public and Private Sector
In june 2016, over 60 participants gathered at the College of insurance in Nairobi to discuss best practices and share their knowledge and expertise on index insurance, particularly livestock insurance and agriculture insurance. The discussions were quite timely, as the Government of Kenya recently allocated US$6 million for crop and livestock insurance for smallholder producers for next year, as one of the ‘key government flagship projects to drive the transformative agenda’. This is a five-fold increase in budget from the previous years with strong allocations toward data systems and premium
Sandee Working Paper: Performance Assessment of Crop Insurance Schemes in Odisha in Eastern India
In a Sandee Working Paper, Mamata Swain and Sasmita Patnaik study two major crop insurance schemes operating in Odisha state of India: National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and the pilot Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS). NAIS provides compensation for yield losses due to natural causes and covers all food crops and commercial crops. WBCIS provides coverage for paddy crop yield losses due to rainfall only. Both schemes are compulsory for loanee farmers and are also available for non-loanee farmers on voluntary basis. In this study, we analyze and compare various indicators
Panos Varangis
Panos Varangis, the World Bank Group's Global Lead for agricultural finance and agricultural insurance in the Finance and Markets Global Practice, was speaking at a World Bank event on index insurance in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic's Diario Libre reports. To an audience, Mr. Varangis was presenting index insurance as an alternative financial instrument that can protect agricultural producers in Dominican Republic from hurricanes, tropical storms, and floods. The country loses an average of US $450 million a year since 1961 by events associated with these types of disasters. Dominican
Advancing Financial Inclusion Through Access to Insurance: the Role of Postal Networks
With 1.5 billion people worldwide getting access to financial services through a post office, postal networks are powerful tools to advance financial inclusion. Posts have already proved to have comparative advantages in remote areas and with specific vulnerable groups – the poor, the less educated and those in the informal economy – compared with other financial services providers. This study by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) delves into the transformative potential of postal networks into well-suited providers of insurance. The report
Kenyan Farmers to Benefit From Innovative Insurance Program
NAIROBI, March 12, 2016- The Government of Kenya today launched the Kenya National Agricultural Insurance Program, which is designed to address the challenges that agricultural producers face when there are large production shocks, such as droughts and floods. The program, which is designed as a partnership between the government and the private sector, was developed with assistance from the World Bank Group and builds on the experience of similar programs in Mexico, India, and China. One program line will focus on livestock insurance, while another will focus on maize and wheat insurance.
Agriculture Focus - Parametric Insurance Solution Against Climate Change Effects
Mr. Tanguy Touffut of AXA Corporate Solutions discusses the benefits of parametric insurance, which he sees as a promising solution for farmers and other weather-sensitive industries against climate-change effects. It is nothing new: climate change, a phenomenon in full effect, has many drastic consequences of all types for people, companies, and entire economies alike. It has been observed that weather extremes are increasing as a consequence of climate change. In January 2015, AXA Corporate Solutions entered into a partnership with the World Bank’s Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF). The
Index insurance: What you need to know
In an article entitled “Index insurance: What you need to know”, Devex interviews Gloria Grandolini, the WBG’s Senior Director, and Gilles Galludec, GIIF Program Manager, on the Global Index Insurance Facility and how index insurance works. To help encourage the spread of index insurance as a risk management tool, GIIF is working with regional partners in developing countries, primarily sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific. Over 1 million small farmers, pastoralists and small businesses have signed on — with over $130 million in sums insured. Click here to read
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Nov
Albert Einstein once remarked "if I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it." Good advice, but unfortunately all too often forgotten. The British post office (Royal Mail) at one point tried to improve its next-day delivery rate from 98 to 99%, in an attempt to improve customer perception of its services. The effort nearly broke the organization, while it would have taken much less effort and resources to simply tell the UK public about the post office's current performance -- surveys showed people thought it was
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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