A recent workshop sought solutions to index insurance challenges. If the rains fail, a farmer can lose everything. With even the chance of a bad year, investing in new crop varieties and technologies might be too risky. Year after year, she’s caught in the trap of low production. Weather index-based insurance emerged at the beginning … Continue reading
The work of the IBLI project is showcased in several news items: AlJazeera Inter Press Service Continue reading
The IBLI project announces a call for proposals to help build a web-based interface with simulation capacity that will enable the automation of index-generating procedures; the automation of information dissemination across a range of output and format types; a facility for querying the system on historical index trends and other project-relevant data across program locations; … Continue reading
27th July 2013 saw the successful launch of IBLI in Isiolo. APA Insurance, World Vision Kenya and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) have come together in a dedicated effort aimed at mitigating the effects of drought experienced by pastoralist communities in Isiolo as the two introduce an index-based insurance product using satellite-based data on … Continue reading
Oromia Insurance Company (OIC) has recently launched a new product dubbed Index Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) for pastoralists in Borena Zone, Oromia National Regional State. For farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia’s drought vulnerable zone, the launching of IBLI is very good news. Borena has been affected by drought recurrently over the past couple of years. … Continue reading
The pdf below provides a color coded map of the predicted mortality index in all 5 Marsabit divisions for October 2012, and also posts the index status at the previous 6 potential payment periods. 5IndexAreaMarsabit.pdf Continue reading
CNN’s Nima Elbagir today reports on the IBLI micro-insurance scheme in northern Kenya that is offering hope to farmers in the region. Speaking on CNN’s Marketplace Africa, Elbagir reports how, now the rains have come, farmers know they must prepare for the next drought that will inevitably come. Fifty-nine-year-old Wacho Yayo lost 10 of his … Continue reading
A new article in the Journal of Risk and Insurance by Sommarat Chantarat, Andrew Mude, Christopher Barrett and Michael Carter describes our index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) product piloted among pastoralists in Northern Kenya, where insurance markets are effectively absent and uninsured risk exposure is a main cause of poverty. It describes the methodology used to … Continue reading
In Kenya, the value of the pastoral livestock sector is estimated to be worth 800 million U.S. dollars Livestock insurance scheme developed by pastoralists in partnership with the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is helping Kenyan herders to protect their marketable assets. The new book on markets development for African small holder farmers published … Continue reading
Camels mean cash in Kenya. But severe drought routinely kills off livestock, and families go bankrupt, unless they have an innovative insurance plan. Brenda Wandera’s iPhone buzzes in her lap. A text message has made its way through the blurry heat of Kenya’s Chalbi Desert, and it changes her next move. “As soon as we get … Continue reading
Index-Based Livestock Insurance 