17.11.2022
10:30 am

INSURED at COP27: Strengthening farmers’ resilience through climate risk insurance: Who pays and how?

Speakers:
Marc de Sousa-Shields – Lead Technical Specialist, Rural Finance and Markets (IFAD), Rose Goslinga – President (Pula), Munyaradzi Daka – Technical Lead, Agro Consortium, Uganda, Tara James – Climate Risk and Agricultural Insurance Specialist, INSURED/IFAD
Published By:
Hosted by:
PARM - Platform for Agricultural Risk Management
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ABOUT THE EVENT

Within the framework of IFAD’s participation in COP27, INSURED will host the side-event “Strengthening farmers’ resilience through climate risk insurance: Who pays and how?”, to be held on 17th November.

 

Background

Climate risk insurance plays a key catalytic role in strengthening smallholder farmers’ resilience to potentially devastating risks – including drought, heatwaves, floods and storms. However, current levels of insurance coverage are shockingly low. Globally, less than 20 per cent of smallholder farmers have agricultural insurance, and that number is less than 3 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. Insurers typically have little presence in rural markets, while farmers are mostly unfamiliar with insurance and struggle to pay for products.

Making climate risk insurance work for smallholder farmers is a growing strand in IFAD’s drive to support resilience. Insurance compensation following shocks and losses boosts small farming households’ food security, helps stabilize rural economies, and strengthens the resilience of the food systems we all depend on.

Although evidence is mounting about the benefits of insurance, enabling farmers to access affordable cover is a complex task involving multiple stakeholders. Building effective partnerships between public and private players is essential. Since 2018, INSURED, financed by Sida and implemented by IFAD through the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM), has been supporting integration of climate risk insurance within the IFAD-financed agricultural development portfolio and with its partners, including governments, market institutions and small-scale producers.

“Who pays for climate risk insurance?” is a simple question – but it has many answers. In many developed agricultural insurance markets, premium financing in the form of government subsidies is the norm. However, in the Global South governments face budgetary constraints and smallholder farmers have limited resources, particularly at the start of the season when premiums are payable.

The panel will unpack the experience of premium financing from the work of the INSURED programme and its partners. It will look at the pros and cons of subsidizing insurance premiums and experiences with different payment models will be presented, including private sector pre-financing and other opportunities of sector pre-financing, and at the challenges and opportunities for different stakeholders.

RE-LIVE THE FULL SESSION: https://bit.ly/3OyxPWI 

About INSURED

Since 2018, INSURED, financed by Sida and implemented by IFAD through the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) has been supporting integration of climate risk insurance within the IFAD-financed agricultural development portfolio and with its partners, including governments, market institutions and small-scale producers. More

Focus Region:
Global
Focus Topic:
Climate / Weather / Environment
Rural Finance / Insurance
Moderator

Marc de Sousa-Shields – Lead Technical Specialist, Rural Finance and Markets (IFAD)

Marc de Sousa-Shields is Lead Regional Technical Specialist, Rural Finance and Markets, Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia and is based in Cairo, Egypt.  Prior to this Marc lead ES Global Consulting, Mexico, where he was Managing Partner. Prior to this, Marc was Executive Director of the Social Investment Organization of Canada (now Responsible Investment Association of Canada). Mr. de Sousa-Shields possesses a MA in Regional Economic Geography from the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Canada.

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Rose Goslinga – President (Pula)

Rose is the President and co-founder of Pula, an agricultural insurance and technology company that was named a 2022 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Rose is a social entrepreneur with 15 years of experience in agriculture and insurance. She is a Rainer Arnhold Fellow and Social Innovation Fellow from Poptech, and a TED speaker. Her work has been recognized through several international awards, including the Financial Times/IFC Award for Sustainable Finance, InsureTech 3.0, and the Singapore Fintech Festival.

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Munyaradzi Daka – Technical Lead, Agro Consortium, Uganda

Munya has 29 years of experience in the insurance sector. He has particular expertise in agriculture insurance with a focus on financial inclusion and risk management for vulnerable sectors of society. With a business and IT background and extensive private sector experience, Munya is the technical lead at the Agro Consortium (AIC) in Uganda, a coalition of currently 13 insurance companies, licensed to underwrite agriculture insurance in Uganda. He is also a technical committee member of the Uganda Agriculture Insurance Scheme (UAIS).

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Tara James – Climate Risk and Agricultural Insurance Specialist, INSURED/IFAD

Tara joined the INSURED team in 2019 with 10 years of experience in risk transfer for geographical and weather hazards in the context of the changing climate. From 2010 to 2015 she was a Facility Supervisor for the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF SPC), the world’s first multi-country parametric risk pool.  She provides technical and strategic advice for INSURED’s work on climate risk insurance in over 15 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

 

 

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