Increasing resilience, strengthening risk management capacity and improving livelihoods of poor rural households

Background

One of biggest challenges for the resilience of poor rural populations, is the high occurrence of risks. Risks can affect individual households, and also many households at once in the case of climate-related events like drought, flood, and pests.

Climate-related agricultural insurance (‘Climate insurance’) can build resilience against these risks as part of a “holistic rural development approach” which allows households to absorb and bounce back quicker from shocks, in addition to helping them become more productive and build assets. It also helps micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to secure their business and to offer better services; as well as financial service providers (FSPs)to reach out to clients they typically consider to be too ‘risky’. The unique offering of insurance is that it transfers unpredictable risks away from individuals, households, MSMEs, and governments that cannot otherwise be managed.

The technical assistance programme INSURED (Insurance for Rural Resilience and Economic Development Programme) promotes climate insurance as a crosscutting tool in rural development initiatives. It is financed by Sida and implemented by IFAD, with partnerships including with the Facility. It assists governments and decision makers to define areas of insurance investment as part of rural development strategies. INSURED also provides technical assistance to IFAD and other relevant players in designing and implementing insurance linked to agriculture related activities. INSURED will furthermore build the capacity of local public and private partner institutions and share lessons for scaling-up.

The Facility are partnering with IFAD on INSURED, to assess country climate insurance markets and promote policy dialogue in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Uganda. This builds on the wealth of knowledge and experience in the agriculture sector as well as a promoter of inclusive insurance through stimulating innovation, transforming knowledge into practice, and accelerating the development of inclusive insurance markets.

Purpose

The goal of INSURED is to increase the resilience, to strengthen the capacity to manage risks, and to improve the livelihoods of poor rural households. Towards this, the partnership between IFAD and ILO for this project will support all three specific objectives of INSURED: a. Promote climate insurance in rural development policies and strategies; b. Increased sustainable access to holistic insurance schemes of poor rural people; and c. Increased knowledge and capacity of decision makers and implementers on sustainable use and development of climate insurance.

Activities

The activities for each of the objectives include:
  • Climate insurance policy and strategy. Conducting country assessments in Cambodia, Indonesia and Uganda, formulating policy recommendations and providing technical assistance to IFAD-financed country programme design and implementation, regional portfolio review and development of an IFAD strategy for scaling-up climate insurance.
  • Implementation of climate insurance. Conducting feasibility studies; supporting climate insurance product and scheme design; implementation of climate insurance products/schemes; scheme assessment and planning;
  • Capacity building and knowledge management. Share knowledge and best practice for public good; deliver and participate in knowledge sharing and learning events; tailor-made in-person training for specific groups; guidance frameworks for IFAD-financed programmes.
The ILO shares the same approach to IFAD and INSURED in that it strives to enable the insurance industry, governments, and their partners to realize the potential impact of insurance and promote a healthy growth of the insurance sector.