How Kenya’s herders got their livestock insured

In a feature article “How Kenya’s herders got their livestock insured” in the online publication Rethink Earth (Resilience Thinking for Global Development), Lucas Larsen writes about the challenges that ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute) scientists are facing in developing insurance for pastoralists in the drylands of Kenya. He relates how it took several tries and careful tuning to different communities across the country in order to create the index-based livestock insurance policy. He discusses the trials and tribulations of ILRI scientists as they sought to make the insurance a commercial venture and, above all, as they sought the pastoralists’ trust in the insurance system. He concludes that the insurance will probably require constant updating in the face of climate change and other shifts affecting its target population and the ecosystem in which they live.

Posted on 28 September 2017 in Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism & Services