Private Drought Insurance in East Africa.

Today I’m looking at an application of the climate change insurance principle.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/insurance-aims-to-help-herders-avoid-downward-spiral-from-drought

This details an example of drought insurance in East Africa.  This is an interesting example because it’s a case of offering insurance to those most at risk from the challenges of climate change.  Its an important example here because it shows what an on the ground scheme can look like – through managing to work through the trust, illiteracy, access and technology issues.  These are achieved through working through the village chiefs to appoint a reliable member as the trained representative.  Pay outs are done through remote sensing, and so the requirements for verification are reduced.

This shows that the climate change insurance program being discussed in SBI 35 has an existing model it can work from, and through improving funding, expand it in the future.