Author Archives: IBLI Africa

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A Business Evaluation of the Sales and Distribution Model for Index-Based Livestock Insurance

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“Developing the insurance product was the easy part. The tweaking, monitoring, and adapting – that has been much more complicated.” This, in essence, was what Cornell development economist Christopher Barrett informed us as we began discussing our upcoming Kenya research trip with him. He was right. Since the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) formulated Index-Based … Continue reading →

Record payouts being made by Kenya Government and insurers to protect herders facing historic drought
Climate Change / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / IBLI / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Livestock / News / Resilience / Vulnerability

Record payouts being made by Kenya Government and insurers to protect herders facing historic drought

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Originally posted on ILRI news:
From left to right: Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); Andrew Tuimur, principal secretary in Kenya’s State Department of Livestock; and Willy Bett, cabinet secretary for the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries during a press conference held on 20 Feb 2017 announcing payments…

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Why direct climate funding to African farmers will pay off

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Africa currently only attracts around 5 per cent of climate funding. This is despite the fact that six of the 10 countries most affected by climate change are in Africa, and every single African nation that submitted climate adaptation strategies to the UNFCCC in Paris last year, included agriculture in its plans. Continue reading →

On selling insurance (not lottery tickets) to Africa’s struggling (stargazing) livestock herders–New York Times
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On selling insurance (not lottery tickets) to Africa’s struggling (stargazing) livestock herders–New York Times

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Originally posted on ILRI news:
? Andrew Mude, a Kenyan economist at ILRI who leads a multi-centre Index-Based Livestock Insurance project (IBLI) in the Horn of Africa, is this year’s Norman Borlaug Field Award winner (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). This has been a good—and relatively big—season for work to support the world’s arid lands and…

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How satellites and insurance are securing livestock in East Africa

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Developed in partnership with International Livestock Research Institute, Cornell University and University of California Davis, IBLI uses data gathered by satellite to create a vegetation index that can be used to track the density of vegetation available to pastoralists. Continue reading →

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Up in the sky, help to keep Africans from starving

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Andrew Mude, a Kenyan economist, has a way of explaining satellites. When he’s talking to pastoral in his country’s north — people who roam the earth with a dozen head of cattle and very little else — he talks about the stars that don’t act like other stars. “They’re actually taking pictures of the ground,” Mude says. Herders, a stargazing people, understand. Continue reading →

Africa / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / IBLI / ILRI / Insurance / Livestock / Pastoralism / SLS / Uncategorized

Characterizing Regional Suitability for Index Based Livestock Insurance

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Pastoral populations of Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable to environmental shocks, which contribute to livestock mortality and therefore losses in both wealth and productive assets. Although conventional insurance mechanisms covering individual losses are generally not cost effective  (page 2) in low-income pastoral communities that engage in extensive grazing, index insurance for livestock offers a promising … Continue reading →

Kenyan accepts 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application at World Food Prize Event in Iowa
Africa / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / IBLI / ILRI / Insurance / Livestock / Pastoralism / SLS / Uncategorized

Kenyan accepts 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application at World Food Prize Event in Iowa

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Originally posted on ILRI news:
 Andrew Mude, speaking at an event announcing his award held at ILRI in Nairobi, Kenya, 30 Aug 2016 (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). Researcher Andrew Mude and colleagues are also receiving today a USAID ‘Award for Scientific Excellence’. Both awards honour innovative use of satellite technology and community outreach to develop livestock insurance…