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Despite the delays that the pandemic caused to the design and implementation of new products, three years after the launch of the first parametric insurance in Colombia, the Microinsurance Catastrophe Risk Organization (MiCRO) and its local partners have been able to provide almost 120,000 beneficiaries with increased protection against the impacts of hazards such as excess rain, drought and earthquakes. In 2019, MiCRO and SBS Seguros Colombia S.A. designed a microinsurance product for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Colombia, which has since been offered to Bancamía’s clients and focuses on reaching the urban and rural poor.

Pastoralist communities, who rely on livestock for their livelihoods, are particularly vulnerable to extreme drought which is becoming more common due to climate change. Index-based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) has proven vital in these communities but has not appealed to women because in most cases men control the family’s livestock and the insurance payments for losses. Family Insurance is built on the technical foundation of IBLI but provides coverage in “family” units that pay for household needs during droughts that threaten families’ wellbeing.

The InsuResilience Solutions Fund’s (ISF) Annual Report 2022 highlights the activities and developments of the Fund throughout the past year. The ISF has made substantial progress in strengthening climate risk management, as well as Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) architecture, globally. 2022 was a year marked simultaneously by large scale climate disasters, and groundbreaking global commitments towards addressing climate-related loss and damage. In this context, ISF made considerable progress in supporting climate risk insurance solutions to close the protection gap for vulnerable populations, recording a growing number of activities and reaching 49 projects in 27 countries to date. 2022 also marked the launch of the Global Risk Modelling Alliance (GRMA), and the start of its first project, which aims to develop climate risk modelling capabilities in Pakistan together with its Ministry of Climate Change.

The Sectoral Community (SC) on Integrated Resilience Approaches in Agriculture was developed to inform, design and test innovative integrated solutions in the agricultural sector, as well as support the development of funding criteria for such projects. Following a series of meetings and presentations the SC issued the following guidance for those designing projects and developing proposals for integrated resilience approaches in agriculture and those funding these projects. For project designers and developers, it is recommended to identify the resilience objectives and risk management activities, as well as cost-effective and complementary options. Furthermore, they should seek feedback from various stakeholders and build on existing evidence and best practices. The recommendations for funders include classifying the integration of various stages and processes as an investment objective, considering cost-effectiveness, enabling and incentivizing the use of sound economic risk modelling, and taking into account unintended consequences and tradeoffs. Funders should also pursue a principles-based approach when making investment decisions. Learn more about the InsuResilience Focus Topic on Integrated Approaches here.

In late 2020, the InsuResilience Integrated Approaches Working Group launched four sectoral communities (SC) to increase the deep-dive into topic-specific discussions. One of them focuses on linking Nature- based Solutions (NbS) and risk transfer instruments. Overall, this sectoral community seeks to share knowledge on NbS and Risk Financing, help explore and test new risk financing solutions and identify ways to further mainstream NbS and Risk Financing into global climate change adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction agendas. The SC conducted a survey of how insurers employ NbS. The survey also indicated a lack of agreed assessment tools for the NbS benefits, with a majority of insurers relying on pilot studies rather than widely accepted methodologies. The SC agreed to host a workshop on March 2022 to explore this further and discuss how NbS can be better integrated in catastrophe models and insurance pricing to account for changing protection levels. The workshop was a key milestone for the SC and marked the transition from initial scoping (phase 1) to solution-oriented collaboration (phase 2).

The workshop started off the year 2022 for the InsuResilience Sectoral Communtiy on Integrated Approaches to Resilience in Agriculture. The community brings together practitioners, researchers, project developers, funding partners and other CDRFI stakeholders with a vision to effectively integrate risk transfer approaches (such as insurance) with other resilience-building measures in the agricultural space. The event asked questions such as “what are integrated approaches in the agriculture space” and “how can we achieve a better integration between risk transfer and climate adaptation and comprehensive risk management?”.  The event also offered the opportunity to learn more about the open 7th call for funding proposals of the InsuResilience Solutions Fund with a special window on climate-smart agriculture projects, and to inform the way ‘integrated approaches’ are designed, assessed and evaluated in the further project development process. The workshop featured speakers, among others, from GIZ, UC Davis/ Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk and Resilience, and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). In an interactive format, the workshop allowed interaction and networking among participants. The workshop was open to members of the Sectoral Community, InsuResilience, and other interested parties. For more information on the workshop, have a look at the report, and do not hesitate to reach out to secretariat@insuresilience.org.

Oxford Policy Management evaluated the African Risk Capacity (ARC), which provides sovereign and other insurance and builds capacity in member countries to respond to climate disasters. The evaluation, financed by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Agence Française de Développement, looked at ARC’s work to grow insurance risk pools and strengthen country capacity to respond, as well as its longer-term sustainability. A detailed value for money analysis was also undertaken. It found that ARC has strengthened capacity to respond to drought through contingency planning and insurance in 17 out of 35 member states. Its support is widely valued by recipients. However, the distribution of support to beneficiary households by governments that received a payout often did not happen within the mandated time period, undermining its main objective. The capacity built often does not appear to be sustainable beyond ARC’s support. The value for money assessment rated economy and efficiency as adequate and adequate-to-good, respectively. It was rated less well on effectiveness and equity, due to the problems in reaching beneficiaries on time and challenges in government targeting processes. ARC’s drought insurance risk pool has grown considerably in recent years – due in a large part to subsidies on insurance premiums and a programme of parallel insurance for NGO networks. However, ARC is facing a significant financing and organisational challenges. A set of recommendations are made to address the evaluation findings.

Over the past decades, a suite of new Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) tools has been generated across the development, the humanitarian and the private sector. Examples include index-based insurance, catastrophe bonds, forecast-based financing, pooled funds and many other innovations. Unfortunately, these innovative instruments have often been implemented largely in isolation of each other. Most of them are not integrated in comprehensive disaster risk financing strategies or linked more systematically to recent humanitarian efforts to scale anticipatory action (AA). They all serve different purposes, address different target groups and are based on different modalities – which has its advantages but also results in untapped potential, a loss of synergies, and risks leaving behind those who need the financing the most. In March 2021, the Anticipation Hub, the InsuResilience Global Partnership (IGP) and the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) teamed up to launch the “Sectoral Community on Linking Anticipatory Action to Risk Financing”. The objective of the Sectoral Community (SC) is to bring together the development & humanitarian sector, public & private actors, civil society actors, researchers and think tanks to exchange experiences and share ideas on how various CDRFI tools and anticipatory action can be better integrated. To deepen the discussions, the SC members came up with the idea to draft ‘think pieces’ – succinct, policy-relevant opinion pieces in which SC members could advocate for a particular position or objectively describe the issue/challenges and possible opportunities, options and solutions at hand. SC members developed a set of 10 questions, and they were then invited to address those questions based on their experience, technical expertise and further research. The think pieces are not necessarily providing the views of the organisations of the respective authors but their personal perspective. About every 4-6 weeks the SC gathered over the course of 2022 to discuss and refine the ideas coming out of the think pieces.

The 3rd edition of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) Annual Report is available. Download the report to learn about all MCII engagements and activities for the June 2021 – June 2022 period.

Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) SPC Annual Report 2021/22 describes CCRIF’s activities and accomplishments during policy year 2021/22 as well as their contribution to the seven strategic objectives. The report presents a new Vision as we move toward 2025 and beyond: A leading global development insurer, providing disaster risk financing products and services to member countries to improve lives and livelihoods, building resilience and advancing sustainable development agendas.