We’re thrilled to gather everyone, our member-cooperatives, partners, affiliates, and stakeholders, for this year’s General Assembly!

CLIMBS has long been celebrated for its unwavering dedication to members and communities, offering steadfast insurance solutions and fostering financial empowerment nationwide.

As we near the fulfillment of our commitment to insure 20 million lives by 2024 and embark on new advocacy for the upcoming year, let’s reaffirm our identity as a cooperative. Our cooperative values and principles will guide every aspect of our operations and future growth, fostering a culture of complementarity, collaboration, and cooperation.

Despite the challenges of 2020, particularly the global pandemic’s impact, we remained steadfast in providing mutual protection and fostering resilience within our community especially for our cooperative members who have limited access to social protection. By the end of COVID, we were able to release a total pay-out of 116,356,424.36.

Today, as we celebrate our 52nd Annual General Assembly, our achievements have significantly brought us closer to our goal as well as highlighted the contribution of our cooperatives on food security and global climate action; with this year’s theme of: “A Climate Insurance Year 1: Lets Connect, Lead, Insure, Motivate, Build, and Sustain!”

In alignment with the ESG framework and the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, CLIMBS has taken significant steps toward environmental sustainability. Our Weather Protect Insurance, a parametric micro-insurance, stands as a testament to our dedication to serving and protecting farmers’ livelihoods from climate change-related risks.

In the year 2023, the team gathered over 878 cooperatives and 1,189 participants were able to attend the series of roadshows from 64 out of 82 provinces in the Philippines. The Weather Protect Insurance has fulfilled a total payout of P16.5 million pesos for the last 3 years. Our efforts, supported by partners like the Insuresilience Solutions Fund (ISF) with a total grant of P40 million pesos (USD 713,850) and partners IBISA and Alliance CIAT, reflect our commitment to innovative climate risk insurance of impacting 86,000 farmers.

We are dedicated to furthering sustainability in climate action, collaborating closely with the government to create a robust support network for farmers practicing sustainable agriculture. Our priority is to ensure that our actions are in line with the goals of SDGs, ESG and the climate economy, while upholding the core principles and values of our cooperative.

As we celebrate our achievements and look towards the future, we remain deeply committed to socially responsible practices. Our engagement in environmental activities, such as coastal clean-ups, tree-growing, mangrove planting, coastal cleaning and medical missions to firefighting initiatives, we strive to make a positive impact on communities through our CLIMBS CARES which has as well established 27 continuing outreach groups and 16 partnerships.

Moving forward, we call to our cooperatives that we continue this climate action journey on implementing best practices from simple as no to single use of plastic, products and services specific for farmers and creating environment impact policy and spearhead for our cooperative leaders on continuous education.

Over the course of 2023, CLIMBS has garnered attended over 115 forums, seminars, workshops and established partnerships with both local and international level, creating a lasting impact on the lives of not only cooperative members but also being a prime example for the civil society that it is possible for sustainable governance in the cooperative sector.

This year, we have already established our key business objectives for the next 3-5 years, focusing on further integrating sustainability into our cooperative DNA and embedding ESG principles across our value chain.

This plan cannot be realized without the support of our Board of Directors, management team, and colleagues. Together, we will continue to be dedicated and confident as we work diligently towards our goals. In conclusion, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our cooperative owners for entrusting us with their confidence in our organization.

As we embrace cooperativism, we aim to cultivate a culture that is complementary, collaborative, and cooperative, ensuring a balance between our business scale and our values. We aspire to be enlightened with an informed conscience, striving to become a recognized name not only locally but also beyond grassroots levels. Our goal is to implement “inclusive insurance” practices to promote sustainability.

Thank you to our cooperative owners for your trust and confidence in CLIMBS. Together, let’s continue to make a difference and build a sustainable future for all. Let us move together, keep motivated together and focus on our cooperative movement as we’re moving towards a CLIMATE INSURANCE concept with our new tagline: “Insuring where you are!”. Mabuhay ang kooperatiba!

NOEL D. RABOY

President and CEO