Third Inclusive Insurance Innovation Lab (2021-2022)

German Rodriguez, Costa Rica, iii-lab 3

Sibongile Siwela, Zimbabwe, iii-lab 3

After an eight-month hiatus, the third inclusive insurance innovation (iii) lab had a follow-up call on 22 June 2023. The purpose of this call was for iii-lab participants from Costa Rica, Grenada, Zambia and Zimbabwe to update on the initiatives undertaken and implementation progress of respective prototypes developed since October 2021. Each of the countries provided the following updates: 

1. Costa Rica 

Costa Rica’s climate web tool "FuTurismo” is an online platform to help build awareness on the impact of climate change within the small and medium enterprises tourism sector. In addition, it provides risk assessments and sustainable risk management solutions including insurance. The team began working on a roadmap for the development of the prototype and is currently in the process of hiring a project manager to help implement the different modules of the web tool. The team is also engaged in close consultations with various government agencies to ensure that the tool covers various aspects of climate risk resilience as broadly as possible. Participants were also updated of Costa Rica’s intention to be a member of the Global Risk Modelling Alliance. 

2. Grenada 

Grenada’s innovation of a mutual risk pool was developed to provide  farmers and fisherfolk relief after a declared climate risk related event. This has resulted in a partnership with a company that offers parametric solutions to provide coverage through a product called “flexible hurricane protection (FHP)”. This product is designed to provide insurance protection against tropical cyclones ranging from tropical storms to category 5 hurricanes. The team is now planning to promote the product and raise the awareness of the target group using different channels like town hall style meetings, as well as television and radio.  In addition, deliberations are ongoing to try and secure financing to lower premiums and increase coverage.  

3. Zambia 

Following an observed gap in insurance awareness among farmers, the Zambia team saw an opportunity to design a solution to increase vulnerable populations’ knowledge of insurance through various awareness campaigns.  The team’s idea was to engage community champions and utilise printed materials to help raise awareness in all ten provinces of Zambia, whilst mobilising multiple stakeholders to help support their campaign. The team has now developed the material and secured external funding for printing.  

4. Zimbabwe 

The Zimbabwe team has been working   with an actuary to price its innovation of a Farmer’s Basket Bundle that aims at offering affordable Germination Cover and Area Yield Index Insurance (AYII) bundled with inputs like pesticides, fertilizers, among others. In parallel, the team has partnered with government ministries to assist in risk identification and data collection processes. Plans are also underway to engage other stakeholders to assist with the consumer protection matters. The product is expected to be piloted ahead of the next cropping season.  

From 19 to 21 September, the A2ii Inclusive Insurance Innovation Lab (iii-lab), hosted the 2022 International Dialogue gathering country teams from the third cohort: Costa Rica, Grenada, Zambia and Zimbabwe, along with lab 1 and lab 2 alumni from Albania, Argentina, Ghana, Kenya, Mongolia, Morocco, and Rwanda.

The third iii-lab – the climate lab – country teams presented new approaches they have developed aiming at tackling one of the greatest global threats of our time - climate change. 

• Costa Rica developed a web-based open platform for small hoteliers to increase resilience of their businesses through risk assessments and sustainable solutions. 
• Grenada worked on a mutual risk pool to provide direct relief to famers and fisherfolk after a declared climate-related disaster. 
• Zambia developed a pilot to raise awareness on insurance by engaging community champions to disseminate information to farmers and other agriculture stakeholders.
• Zimbabwe worked on The Farmers’ Basket bundle which offers affordable Area Yield Index Insurance (AYII) with inputs like pesticides, fertilizers, and irrigation equipment, among others. 

Click here to see photos from the event.

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During the past nine months, the multi-stakeholder teams of iii-lab three, the ‘climate lab’, have worked collectively on innovative solutions to increase resilience of the most vulnerable segments in their societies against the impacts of climate change. 

In June, the four iii-lab teams from Costa Rica, Grenada, Zambia and Zimbabwe gathered outside the virtual world for the first time. Each country team met for a two-and-a-half-day workshop to reflect on the journey they have embarked on since October 2021.  

In the workshops, the country teams continued working on their initial prototypes and planned further steps to the implementation and institutionalisation of the process. In addition, the teams were able to present their work to external stakeholders to receive their feedback. The workshops ended with defining a road map for a sustainable continuation of the work once the iii-lab programme ends. The iii-lab hosting team passed on the ownership and responsibility of the lab to each team. 

Costa Rica

The Costa Rica implementation workshop took place from 8 – 10 June in San José, Costa Rica and was hosted by the insurance supervisory authority SUGESE.  Participants included representatives from SUGESE, insurance companies and the Ministry of Tourism. The team are developing a prototype for a climate web tool called Fu-Turismo that aims at building awareness of climate change in the tourism sector while at the same time promoting risk reduction and coverage solutions. Primary beneficiaries of this innovative tool are micro, small and medium entrepreneurs from the tourism sector, which are heavily affected by the impacts of natural and climate disasters. During the workshop external stakeholders gave feedback on the prototype the team developed.

Grenada

The Grenada implementation workshop took place from 27 - 29 June in St. George’s, Grenada and was hosted by the insurance supervisory authority GARFIN. Participants included representatives from GARFIN, the Grenada Development Bank, farmers cooperatives and the Ministries of Finance and Agriculture. The team continued working on their initial prototype, a mutual risk pool that provides direct relief to farmers and fisherfolk after a declared climate-related disaster. 

Zambia

The implementation workshop for the Zambia team was held from 14 - 16 June in Lusaka, Zambia and was hosted by the Pensions and Insurance Authority (PIA), Zambia. The workshop had representatives from all stakeholders of the lab team including PIA Zambia, Ministry of Finance - Zambia, FSD Zambia, Microinsurance TAG, Farmer support organisations such as Musika, ZAFWEB and Mulimi and insurance industry representatives like the Insurance Association of Zambia, Insurance Broker’s Association of Zambia. 

This workshop was an opportunity for the team to refine their prototype idea of developing an insurance awareness campaign aimed at promoting greater awareness and trust in climate risk insurance amongst small holder farmers in Zambia, leveraging the social capital of trusted figures like agriculture insurance officers and community leaders.  

During the previous phases of the workshop, the team has identified the critical gaps of information and awareness that smallholder farmers in Zambia face, they tested these assumptions in a focused group discussion with smallholder farmers just outside Lusaka. The insights received from the discussions with farmers helped the team further tighten their idea on their information campaign prototype which was shared with a wider set of representatives from the insurance industry on Day 3. 

The refined prototype idea consists of developing an information campaign that works at a generic level for generic index insurance solutions, the content would be provided for the various insurance players in the Zambian market. This information would then be taken to the farmers via mobile phones, local input providers and other entities with a last mile connectivity, including extension offices and local leaders.   

Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe implementation workshop took place from 21 – 23 June in Harare, Zimbabwe and was co-hosted by the Insurance and Pensions Commission of Zimbabwe (IPEC). Participants included representatives from IPEC, the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe, the Insurance Brokers Association of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union, AFC Holdings, Women Farmers Land Association Trust, Champions Insurance, Pivot Africa, World Food Programme, and the Ministry of Finance. 

The team worked on developing a prototype product called “Farmer’s Basket” that aims to strengthen resilience and provide protection from climate and disaster events for smallholder farmers in rural areas of Zimbabwe. As part of the workshop, they went on a field visit to the Goromonzi area and met with local farmers to discuss the prototype and receive feedback. 

The Farmer’s Basket is intended to be a bundle of services. This includes area yield insurance with riders for life and funeral risks, information services on weather and market rates, insurance for farm inputs, and finally, linking these efforts to other infrastructure level efforts being undertaken by the government, which includes digging 35,000 boreholes for irrigation services.  

The workshop ended with the team defining its workplan for the next 3 months. The group formed multiple small teams to address different areas of coordination and work as part of their plan. A robust proposal to be further tested should be ready by the end of the lab in September this year. 

Since mid-March, inclusive insurance innovation lab (iii-lab) country teams from Costa Rica, Grenada, Zambia and Zimbabwe have been working on the national level to develop their initial prototypes, choosing solutions aimed at increasing resilience against climate risks in their jurisdictions.

On 3 and 4 May, teams had the opportunity to present an elevator pitch of their prototypes to a diverse panel of experts, namely Rachel Field (R.K. FIELD, LLC), Hannah Grant (Access to Insurance Initiative), Agrotosh Mookerjee (Risk Shield), Elias Omondi (FSD Africa) and Shilpi Shastri (Winclusivity). The panel was impressed by the brilliant presentations and provided constructive feedback and suggestions which the teams are now using to progress with the development of their prototypes.

·        Costa Rica is working on a climate tool called Fu-Turismo that aims at building awareness of climate change in the tourism sector while at the same time promoting risk reduction and coverage solutions.

·        Grenada’s prototype, The Grenada Pan Cooperative Resilience Fund, takes advantage of a strong and well-organised cooperative sector in the country. It is planned to develop a mutual risk pool that provides direct relief to farmers and fisherfolk after a declared climate-related disaster.

·        Zambia’s prototype focuses on raising awareness of insurance, especially among the most vulnerable in the agricultural sector (youths and women). Their solution proposes engaging with community champions to disseminate relevant information.

·        Zimbabwe is developing a bundled product that combines index insurance with other non-financial products and services like agronomic and weather advice. To address low financial education rates, this will be accompanied by an all-stakeholder awareness process.

Next, before entering the implementation phase in June, teams will complete the innovation phase with the development of a prototyping roadmap.

Join the conversation on LinkedIn!

During the discovery phase, the four country teams agreed on the beneficiary groups they would like to serve with their innovations. These include smallholder farmers, fishing folk and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector. In December and January, the teams then conducted interviews with representatives of each group to get a deeper understanding of challenges and needs they are facing when it comes to climate resilience. These interviews helped country teams to identify unmet, unarticulated needs that are crucial to know when creating compelling new solutions.

Participants then met in an international process to discuss the insights gathered from the interviews. Common learnings across countries are that often interview partners were not aware of (future) impacts of climate change, customer-centric products that meet real needs of farmers are not available and hence new partnerships and more proactive governments are needed.

Before teams are now going to start innovating and prototyping on the national level, they dedicated some time to enhancing their knowledge about recent innovations developed to increase resilience by working together in cross-country teams.

Country teams from Costa Rica, Grenada, Zambia and Zimbabwe started the programme in October 2021. The members of the country teams include the insurance supervisor, policymakers, industry associations, insurers, brokers, service providers, farmers’ associations, NGOs and development partners.

At the beginning of the 12-month process, it is essential to understand the current reality of climate risk for vulnerable groups in each country. In October and November, the teams put their heads together (virtually) to analyse why so many people in their country remain largely unprotected against climate risk. Starting at the end of November, participants met in international workshops to forge networks across teams and learn about the context in other jurisdictions. 

Two main challenges were identified within the country teams. First, vulnerable groups are usually unaware of climate risk finance and alternative means of addressing climate risk. Second, suitable insurance products are often missing, either because insurers do not have the necessary skills and knowledge to develop such products or because they lack data about climate risk for different target groups. When it comes to selecting the beneficiaries for whom teams will develop their innovations, the following have been chosen: smallholder farmers, fishing folk and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector. 
 

As one participant stated, “we still need to learn and understand… and so many things we found we have in common.”

In December and January, teams will continue their learning journeys by interviewing people from the beneficiaries identified, in order to learn more about their lives and how they deal with climate risks. With this input in mind, the teams will be ready to start innovating during the first quarter of 2022. 

I really liked how the whole session was so engaging and required us to think out of the box. Interactions with the lab members from other countries was very good as it provided us with time to share challenges and opportunities for innovation.

Congratulations to all four selected country-teams from: Costa Rica, Grenada, Zambia and Zimbabwe!

 The four multistakeholder country teams are embarking on a one-year journey to develop innovative solutions to increase resilience of the most vulnerable segments in their societies against the impacts of climate change.

We are happy to partner again with Reos Partners, who will be facilitating the process, and particularly excited to have InsuResilience Global Partnership as our knowledge partner.

See the announcement on LinkedIn.