Scaling up Risk Insurance in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues and Way Forward

Risk insurance can provide an effective means of catastrophic risk reduction and climate change adaptation in developing countries. Case studies from within and outside the Asia-Pacific region provide valuable lessons, which could be used for promoting risk insurance for future climate regimes. Issues such as high basis risk, lack of qualified historical data for designing and pricing risk insurance, limited knowledge and awareness in designing and utility of insurance, high premium prices, limited reinsurance availability and lack of enabling policies, are the key bottlenecks that limit the spread of risk insurance in the region. This project aims to assess the benefits accrued through community-level risk insurance experiences in the region, evaluate barriers limiting its penetration, and identify interventions for greater risk insurance penetration leading to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.