Scaling up Insurance to Protect Fijian Farmers
Fiji’s Ministry of Economy partnered with UN Capital Development Fund in 2020 on a pilot project aimed at providing parametric insurance to smallholder farmers to cushion them from the financial shocks caused by the cyclical nature of the region’s cyclones and other natural disasters. The defining feature of parametric insurance is that it pays out a previously agreed amount when a specific event occurs. The parametric insurance offers a quick pay out on claims, allowing the farmers to begin recovery immediately. It enables insurance to reach even remote communities that would otherwise be quite costly to insure based on verifications of damage.
Funded by the India-UN Partnership Development Fund, the pilot phase of this project – the first parametric insurance offered in the region – insured 1,246 smallholder farmers by end of the project in 2021. The partners have now launched the second phase to expand the number of farmers covered.
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