Climate Insurance for the Poor: Challenges for Targeting and Participation

This article looks at weather insurance schemes recently piloted at micro- and macro-level and their potential as tools for social protection. It focuses on challenges and differences between these two approaches on targeting opportunities and local participation. Key findings are that micro-schemes, where contracts are sold to individuals or small groups, focuses on improving creditworthiness and asset protection for better off farmers, Therefore they are inappropriate for social protection, whereas macro-insurance, through national and multi-country policies, appear to have the potential to improve the sustainability of programmes targeting the most vulnerable part of the population. The conclusions highlight that more research is required to critically analyse current experience and develop solid feasibility studies. Additionally, for the future, more attention needs to be given to the targeting process, local participation and engagement with civil society and also the monitoring of the impact of these schemes on people with varying levels of vulnerability,