Weather index insurance for smallholder farmers and small businesses
Old Mutual, Hollard, Mayfair, ASSA
Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Guatemala, Kyrgyz Republic
The World Food Programme (WFP)
2018
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organisation saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Blue Marble is proud to be supporting the vulnerable communities where WFP works to build resilience to the impacts of climate change. Blue Marble’s contribution partnership with WFP started in Zimbabwe in 2018 and has since scaled-up to support programs in Mozambique, Zambia, Guatemala and the Kyrgyz Republic.
More than 2.3 billion people live on less than US$ 1.25 a day and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Vulnerability to climate-related shocks constantly threatens their ability to secure enough nutritious food throughout the year. WFP’s flagship microinsurance programme, the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative, builds resilience through four integrated pillars: risk reduction, risk transfer, risk retention, and prudent risk-taking. Climate risk insurance, to both protect and improve people’s livelihoods as well as finance rapid recoveries, is an essential element in the portfolio of initiatives.
Agricultural communities are vulnerable to climate risks. Adverse weather that damages harvests disproportionately hurts smallholder farmers and is a barrier to farmers building economic resilience and achieving a sustainable living income and food security. Farmers need financial stability to plan for the longer term and invest in sustainable agronomy. Building farmer financial stability benefits all stakeholders and improves the community’s resilience to climate shocks. The challenge for Blue Marble was to design affordable insurance that pays out without delay when climate shocks strike.
The solution was pioneered in Zimbabwe. In partnership with SCBF and insurance partner Old Mutual, Blue Marble innovated affordable crop insurance named, Ruzhowa/Uthango (“fence”), to protect against the adverse effects of climate change. The insurance product uses satellite-based climate data to determine when climate shocks have impaired crops. When the satellite technology detects that there has been a climate shock in a specific location, payouts are made directly to the registered farmers in the area, graduated according to the severity of the weather. No notices of loss, formalities or claims processes are required which makes for a seamless and simple process for the farmers.
Since the start in Zimbabwe, WFP has supported the program’s extension to address additional climate perils, bring more digitisation capabilities, and expand the footprint to Mozambique, Zambia, Guatemala, and the Kyrgyz Republic. Currently, the program is protecting approximately 10,000 people. We are proud to innovate with WFP to provide affordable climate insurance and create a cost-effective safety net for vulnerable communities.
Ever since we got covered by the insurance, we have now upscaled the size of our farming. We are aiming to upscale even more now, because we are insured. That was not the case before.
– Nicholas Matanhi
Previously we farmed small portions we did that without insurance but now with insurance we are upscaling because we now feel safe to do so.
– Trainys Muchagona
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