Tailoring the packaging of any product is essential to ensure it fits the social and cultural context of the communities it serves. Cultural beliefs, in particular, play a significant role when introducing innovations in rural areas. Last week, I learned something fascinating about people in Zambia’s Eastern Province: apparently, people there believe that if a pregnant woman is pricked by the thorn of a musangu tree (a tree now being promoted in agroforestry) she may miscarry. Insights like these remind us that successful interventions go beyond technical design; they require sensitivity to local knowledge and traditions. I often joke that when I visit my grandmother in the village, she’s far more likely to give me maize, groundnuts, and vegetables (a whole care package really) than to hand me K50. This speaks volumes about rural value systems and exchange preferences. It’s against this backdrop that, at ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company), we have intentionally sought to understand the end-user reality. Through select aggregator partners, we are piloting the use of grain as a mode of premium payment for insurance. This grain-for-premium initiative, co-funded by DEG Impulse, is designed to ease the affordability burden for farmers while promoting inclusion. We are learning a great deal from this pilot and look forward to sharing periodic insights on how such locally rooted models can scale to benefit smallholder farmers across Zambia and, eventually, the wider COMESA region. #ClimateRiskInsurance #Afforability #InnovativePaymentMethods
Very commendable idea and very innovative as well. Well done.
I would love to know if the chap wearing the T-shirt knew what it said or not and whether he could explain parametric insurance (because I cannot). Reminds me of a guy in Manila airport wearing a T-shirt advertising a medicine for an embarrassing condition and I asked him if he knew what the T-shirt said and he could not read English 😄
B.Sc, ACII G, ACII UK, SEC Level II A chartered insurance professional, Business Development and Development finance practitioner.
3dGreat, Farmsure Alliance lbg piloted in Ghana. Funding from donors stalled and the project is now on hold. Looking for donors to restore the project.