Financial tools for small scale fishers in Melanesia
Description
The project will, in consultation and collaboration with WWF Pacific, local communities, government, business, and the insurance sector, develop innovative ex ante risk financing products to improve community resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change, including major shock events. These financial products will identify cost-effective solutions to the financial resilience priorities identified with and by the communities, and support climate adaptation of these communities by rapidly dispersing post-event funds to respond to ecosystem impairment and smooth community and household needs after acute events.
Fiji, Papua New Guinea
N/A
There are a number of innovative aspects of this project: there are limited climate insurance products offered in the Pacific, especially at the community level; the product will integrate the protection of ecosystems by directing a portion of the pay-out for community-level environmental priorities, which is expected to improve resilience to climate change impacts at both the household level and the ecosystem level.
Lack of premium financing presents challenges with successfully launching a pilot. The lack of dedicated premium financing support creates uncertainty around whether and when a product can be launched.
Local partner engagement is critical for all aspects of the project and sustainability post-GEF funding.
I have observed that the women of Korovou village are becoming more involved and aware of the discussions around Insurance, for the district of Tavua, we often face floods, tropical cyclones and droughts. These are the three natural disasters that affect us, while discussing with women I advise them that parametric insurance companies will not come to assess the damage sustained to their homes and issue payout to damages to their property, instead these parametric insurance companies will come to assess the level and intensity of rainfall that fell within the district and the damage it left behind in order to issue payout, so women of Korovou are beginning to witness the importance of saving their money for their children and the future generations. They are beginning to see the importance of having a vision on why do we need to save money for the future, this is the vision that we have especially when advising our children of the importance of insuring their life not just using their money derived from fishing or planting but keeping some savings aside for insurance.