New index-based livestock insurance protects vegetation rather than animals. But can it generate trust within the community?

Daniel Howden in Wajir theguardian.com, Friday 4 April 2014 11.20 BST

It was almost inevitable that the day chosen to make the first drought insurance payments in Wajir, in the arid north-east of Kenya, would be the same day the rains came.

Herders who lost sheep, cattle and camels in the scorching first quarter of the year sheltered from the storm in an airless hall waiting for the cheques from an innovative new scheme that seeks to break the drought-and-bust cycle blighting pastoralists across the Horn of Africa…..read more