 |  |
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2012— The
World Bank and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs are
launching a US$3 million joint program to reduce farmers’ financial
vulnerability to crop and livestock losses.
The Agricultural Insurance Development Program (AIDP) will
address key reasons for lackluster agricultural insurance development
in developing countries: under-developed risk market infrastructure,
lack of reliable data, low domestic technical expertise, and an
inadequate legal and regulatory framework.
“This
partnership ensures that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the World
Bank will continue to work together to promote sustainable agricultural
risk management in developing countries,” said Jaap Smit, Innovation and
Markets Policy Officer in the Ministry.
Through
policy advice, technical support and awareness-raising, the program
will help developing countries set up sustainable agricultural insurance
systems and design and implement agricultural insurance solutions that
will ultimately benefit farmers.
“Multiple
agricultural insurance pilots, mainly related to index-based crop
insurance, have been implemented in developing countries, usually with
support from the donor partners.
However, very few have been scaled up to be sustainable,” said Olivier
Mahul, Program Coordinator of the World Bank’s Disaster Risk Financing
and Insurance Program. “The AIDP will provide crucial support in achieving that goal.”
The
AIDP will initially focus on a few countries in Africa and Asia, with
the possibility of expanding to additional countries in the future.
“Agriculture
lies at the very heart of global and national food security issues, but
it is an inherently risky endeavor," said Marc Sadler, Team Leader of
the World Bank’s Agricultural Risk Management Team.
"While the solutions to most agriculture-related risks lie in
traditional mitigation and planning, there remains a vital role for risk
transfer products such as insurance, especially for low frequency, high
impact events. The AIDP will be a key pillar of the Bank’s ability to
develop those opportunities where agricultural insurance can make a real
difference.”
The AIDP is part of the broader Swiss-Dutch-World Bank partnership on agricultural risk management.
Contacts:
The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Sustainable Economic Development Department:
Jaap Smit +31 70 348 5154, jaap.smit@minbuza.nl
World Bank Financial and Private Sector Development:
No comments:
Post a Comment