[BIGD] Making Index-based Insurance Fully Available for Women

[BGID] The BOMA project’s Rural Entrepreneur Access Project (REAP), modeled on BRAC’s Targeting the Ultra-poor Program (TUP), builds the business assets and the economic empowerment of poor women in pastoralist communities in East Africa. “The BOMA Project’s approach is a uniquely adapted model that tackles the challenges specifically suited to the context of the drylands of Africa,” said BOMA Vice President Jaya Tiwari, “especially for women and girls in highly patriarchal societies in pastoralist, rural Kenya.” A midline evaluation of the REAP program revealed that women who were offered the REAP program increased their business assets by 324%, relative to a group of otherwise identical control women. Additionally, their families’ cash earnings increased by 32% and their savings by 509%, relative to the control group. Although these impacts are similar to those of other TUP-based “graduation programs,” the context is not.