From 2014 to 2019, USAID partnered with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Assets and Market Access and its affiliated Index Insurance Innovation Initiative (I4) to act on growing political momentum around agricultural index insurance as a tool for safeguarding rural families against uninsured risk.
The $5,000,000 award “Advancing Index Insurance by Closing the Gap between Knowledge and Implementation” built on the encouraging evidence from a series of successful index insurance interventions. The award would further develop agricultural index insurance and to expand it to a larger scale than what had so far been seen through four key activities:
- Create a Global Action Network (GAN) of experts to advance index insurance
- Design, implement and evaluate one or more large-scale index insurance program
- Address index insurance pricing (and its relationship to value)
- Identify and address knowledge gaps on index insurance
The GAN’s efforts expanded the outlook for how agricultural index insurance can accelerate development in rural communities around the world. Critically, the GAN catalyzed action on neglected aspects of agricultural index insurance—particularly related to quality, contract design, approaches to bundling and consumer education.
The resources created and outreach conducted under this award were important first steps in the evolution of efforts around agricultural insurance. Research projects and pilot programs have created encouraging but isolated evidence and lessons learned. The Global Action Network helped to cohesively integrate these findings into practical resources, disseminate tools and best practices, stimulate engaging and productive discussions and peer learning, and push the future agenda toward quality implementation.