Promoting climate risk insurance in three Southeast Asian countries (Viet Nam, Indonesia, and the Philippines)

Context

The partner countries Philippines, Viet Nam and Indonesia are increasingly affected by climate change, ranking 33rd, 3rd, and 18th, respectively, among the 171 most at-risk countries (World Risk Report 2017). With the agricultural sector as their main source of employment, these countries are home to the extremely poor, poor, and poverty-endangered households.

Many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are particularly affected by climate change and the consequences of extreme weather events, resulting in the destruction of assets, income deprivation, and huge losses. When natural disasters occur, these low-income families use their savings, refrain from investing, or go into debt. Even if financial service providers unlock their reserves, it would not be enough for everyone. Formal insurance policies against extreme weather events have so far been offered mainly for public assets and infrastructure, and the protection gap between the insured and uninsured businesses and homes is increasing. The need to develop and introduce effective and sustainable insurance solutions for households and MSMEs is more pressing than ever.

Objective

Development of direct climate risk insurance (CRI) approaches for the poorest, poor, and at-risk people and groups in the respective country at the political-strategic level with key players has improved.

Approach

RFPI Asia I and II were implemented from 2013 to 2018 with the aim of promoting inclusive insurance in seven Asian countries. RFPI III continues to support the region’s poor, focusing on the provision of risk protection through insurance solutions to cover extreme weather events due to climate change.

Jointly with the partner countries of Indonesia, Philippines and Viet Nam, concepts of CRI are developed and private and public actors become qualified in relation to CRI.

Private providers are trained on innovative CRI products and digitally supported insurance solutions, while insurance supervisory authorities are qualified for CRI-relevant regulatory issues.
The Mutual Exchange Forum on Inclusive Insurance (MEFIN), a peer network of insurance regulatory authorities, is strengthened with regard to CRI solutions.

Insurance solutions for natural disasters for the extremely poor, poor, and at-risk populations, and integrating CRI for these groups into a comprehensive disaster risk management (DRM) approach are being developed. However, DRM is still unknown to governments and the insurance industry, and such approaches are limited mostly due to the lack of data, in particular, exposure and vulnerability analysis of the related target population groups.

The project pursues a systematic approach, which includes capacity development measures and involvement of individual people (specialists and managers), organisations (insurance companies, aggregators, and networks), civil society (selected community groups), and institutional framework actors (ministries and supervisors). Overall, the system of climate adaptation solutions will be strengthened by anchoring private payout models.

Results

Partner governments have included CRI in their national resilience strategies, explicitly targeting the extremely poor, poor, and at-risk populations.4 Million poor, poorest, and most at-risk populations in three partner countries, 50 per cent of whom are women, are covered by new CRI products offered by governments. 

New digitally supported business models, some of which focus on payment modalities, have been introduced with insurers. 

International standard implementation plans for the regulation of CRI solutions have been developed by insurance supervisors of the partner countries.