The World Bank is delivering a training course in designing index-based weather risk management programs in the coastal city of Mombasa.

The training, which ended on Friday, was attended by approximately 70 individuals from insurance companies, financial institutions, national meteorological departments and national insurance regulators from across the East African region.

A statement from the Bank’s offices in Nairobi said that the training is in response to a growing demand for strengthened capacity in agricultural weather risk management in East Africa is being provided by the World Bank’s Agricultural Risk Management Team (ARMT).

"The training course aims to build the capacity of institutions in East Africa by providing the knowledge and skills required to design, price and implement agricultural index-based weather insurance programs,” the statement said.

The design and delivery of the training course has been funded by the European Union’s All ACP Agricultural Commodities Program (AAACP).

Weather risk affects farmer profitability and remains one of the major constraints limiting farmers from accessing credit necessary to expand production and improve productivity.
Index-based weather insurance for agriculture is emerging as a risk management instrument that can potentially enable agricultural stakeholders to transfer risk to parties better able to manage such risk.

By sharing knowledge on index-based weather insurance with the East African insurance sector, the World Bank aims to improve the risk management capabilities of stakeholders in Africa working within agricultural supply chains. 

Training course attendees include representatives from Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Mozambique.

Following the training, the ARMT will be partnering with the College of Insurance in Kenya to assist them in delivering index- based weather insurance training on an on-going basis to the East African insurance sector.

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