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Grantee
Desjardins Développement international (DID), a Canadian non-profit organization, has worked for more than 35 years to improve access to quality and relevant financial services by communities in developing countries. DID specializes in providing technical support – such as introducing new products, modernizing operations or developing local capacity – and investment for the community finance sector.
Consortium members:
- SANASA Insurance Company, Ltd (SICL) is the insurance company of the SANASA savings and credit societies, which are committed to uplifting the standard of living for low-income Sri Lankan families, particularly in rural areas. The insurer’s clientele include farmers, fisherman, vendors and labourers and small business owners.
- BASIXis a group of companies based in India that promote sustainable livelihoods for the rural poor and women through the provision of financial services and technical assistance.
- Financière agricole du Québec-Développement international (FADQDI), a Canadian non-profit, has technical expertise in the fields of crop and revenue insurance, and agricultural financing.
Project Summary
- Project name: Feasibility study for a successful replication strategy for indexed crop insurance
- Project start date: September 2008
- Duration: 6 months
- Country: Sri Lanka
Beneficiaries
Expected target groups: rural Sri Lankan men and women, especially farmers
Project Description
This project wants to solve an important challenge - the protection of poor, rural households in Sri Lanka. By bringing together an interesting combination of technical expertise from India and Canada, the project seeks to replicate and improve on the successful experiences of BASIX with indexed-based crop microinsurance products.
In this first phase, the consortium will conduct a feasibility study to consider the demand, viability and product design, particularly for weather index insurance. The initial market research will assess what risks poor farmers have most difficulty coping with, as well as the data and infrastructure requirements to provide index insurance.
DID has a long collaborative relationship with SICL. Both are firmly rooted in the cooperative movement and committed to microinsurance. Since the SANASA cooperatives serve 2 million households (approximately 10 million people) through 8500 savings and credit institutions, the potential outreach of this project is tremendous. BASIX has delivered life, health and asset insurance to over 700,000 rural households in India, and is one of the pioneers with index-based crop microinsurance. BASIX has consulted for the ADB and World Bank to support index schemes in Asia and Africa. FADQDI has been providing crop insurance to Quebec farmers for 40 years. Its extensive crop insurance expertise should help further enhance this project and its potential impact.
Learning Agenda
- What is the demand for risk coverage among Sri Lankan farmers?
- How does one go about developing a feasibility study for adapting existing crop insurance products / models for new markets?
- What are the mechanisms for promoting south-to-south technical assistance?
More information on the project
Website of the grantee:
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