BRUSSELS, January 20, 2015—The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), an innovative program managed by the World Bank Group, today launched indexinsuranceforum.org, an online knowledge platform for index-insurance practitioners globally. The platform will feature knowledge products, research and discussions on key issues related to the development of innovative insurance solutions.
The platform offerings are geared to address vital areas of index-insurance including product design, sales and distribution, consumer education, sustainability and innovation and regulation. The current mix of knowledge products available on the platform include industry and technical briefs, impact stories, index-insurance data maps, profiles of key service providers, country profiles, research publications, video interviews, event-related news and information, and other exclusive and high-value content.
“This new platform is an important collaborative space that enables practitioners to access information and knowledge that is necessary to accelerate the growth of the industry and to empower a new wave of innovative insurance that can serve financially vulnerable populations on a sustained basis,” said Gilles Galludec, Program Manager for GIIF. “As such, we believe the platform has the right mix of tools to empower practitioners to build solutions that will enrich the index-insurance value chain.”
With the launch of the platform, the GIIF program will continue delivering on its mandate of improved and increased provision of index-insurance among farmers, rural communities, micro and small businesses in need of solutions to mitigate climate and disaster risks. The platform will also serve as an important aggregator of innovative ideas, insights, and best practices among the industry practitioners, academia, government bodies and development institutions.
“We believe the online platform will serve as an important tool to distill and highlight the lessons learned through GIIF’s recently launched community of practice. We have already been able to identify some key themes for the Index Insurance Forum community of practice, which we will look to further explore and discuss through the knowledge products on the platform,” said Craig Churchill, Team Leader of the International Labour Organization’s Impact Insurance Facility, GIIF’s implementing partner on its Index Insurance Forum initiative.
Index-insurance is fast becoming one of the most reliable and innovative solutions for managing financial losses arising from climate factors and natural disasters, particularly within agriculture. Supported by the European Union, Netherlands and Japan, GIIF has enabled several hundreds of thousands of farmers in emerging markets across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia Pacific and other regions access index-insurance products and reduce the losses arising from weather-related risks since its inception in 2009.
About the World Bank Group
The World Bank Group plays a key role in the global effort to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. It consists of five institutions: the World Bank, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA); the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Working together in more than 100 countries, these institutions provide financing, advice, and other solutions that enable countries to address the most urgent challenges of development. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org, www.miga.org and www.ifc.org
About the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF)
The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) is a multi-donor trust fund established in 2009 and is part of the World Bank Group’s Finance and Markets Global Practice. GIIF supports the development and growth of local markets for index-insurance in developing countries, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and East Asia and the Pacific. GIIF helps establish index-insurance markets through capacity building; technical advice on products and pricing; improvements in the enabling regulatory and policy environment; and premium support to help borrowers access insurance on a broader scale. GIIF is funded by the European Union, the Government of Netherlands and the Government of Japan.
