The Index Insurance Innovation Initiative (I4) was jointly promoted by FAO, BASIS, USAID, the Micro-Insurance Innovation Facility of ILO, and Oxfam America. The initiative aims at designing and implementing innovative livelihood optimized index insurance contracts, and verifying the extent to which removing correlated risk can indeed reduce poverty and deepen financial markets in rural agricultural areas.

I4 was promoted in response to increasing evidence that uninsured risks are among the reasons which can drive people into poverty and destitution. Risk can cause people to shy away from high-return activities or pursue defensive savings strategies that cut off sustained accumulation of productive assets. Risk also inhibits the development of rural financial market, which reinforces risk’s negative impacts.

Index insurance pilot will be promoted by I4 across Africa, Asia and Latin America, in collaboration with the private sector, and facilitate the scaling-up at the regional level. Based on the pilots, the initiative will synthesize lessons learned, and create a set of global best practices for the design and implementation of index insurance.

Within this context, a meeting of the Scientific Committee of I4 was hosted by FAO – EST in Rome, on January 15th and 16th. The meeting was organized in four sessions, along two working days. The first was devoted to theoretical presentations and discussions, while the second proposed a review of pilots and practical experiences.

• Meeting agenda
• Meeting notes

Presentations:

• The Performance of Index Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI): Ex Ante Assessment in the Presence of a Poverty Trap
  Chris Barrett, Cornell University
• The Economics of Interlinking Credit and Insurance
  Michael Carter, University of California, Davis
  Alexander Sarris, FAO
• Hybrid contract design
  Stefan Dercon and Daniel Clarke, University of Oxford and CSAE
• Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India
  Xavier Giné, World Bank
• Dynamic Field Experiments & Index Insurance Comprehension: Risk valuation in Morocco, Kenya & Peru
  Travis Lybbert, University of California, Davis
• Pisco Sour? Insights from an Area Yield Pilot program in Pisco, Peru
  Steve Boucher, University of California, Davis
• Intelligent Design of Index Insurance Contract: Insured Credit for Mali Cotton Farmers
  Catherine Guirkinger, University of Namur
• Using Agriculture Insurance to Expand Rural Credit and Savings Services
  Esther Muiruri, Equity Bank
• Drought Micro-insurance in Ethiopia: An Innovative Model to Increase the Resilience of the Poorest Households
  Shadreck Mapfumo, Oxfam America
•  Weather Index Insurance in Practice, Ethiopia
  Eyob Meherette, NISCO
• From index based insurance towards comprehensive financial services
  Rupalee Ruchismita, CIRM
• Partial Compliance and Essential Heterogeneity: Challenges for Impact Evaluation of Index Insurance
  Conner Mullally, Steve Boucher and Michael Carter, University of California, Davis