MAKATI: At the height of severe weather disasters and catastrophic disturbances, CLIMBS had the esteemed opportunity of being a panel speaker at the Asian Development Bank’s Climate and Disaster Risk Insurance Forum held at the ADB Headquarters in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, last September 19-20, 2024.

The forum seeks to unite a varied assembly of insurance specialists, policymakers, and regulators to examine how insurance and capital markets can contribute to creating and executing innovative solutions. On behalf of CEO & President, Noel D. Raboy, VP for Admin and Corporate Planning, Donna C. Dizon participated as a panel speaker at the event.

During Plenary 8: Role of Community-Based Partnerships, CLIMBS highlighted major components of its novel product, the Weather Protect Insurance, during the Q&A sessions. Each participant was asked to elaborate more on the key collaborations and impact of their current initiatives on communities highly susceptible to climate change.

Using innovative insurance solutions, CLIMBS, highlighting the aspects of a parametric- based product, is able to practice a risk-transfer mechanism using our CLIMBS InsureApp. Integrating smart agriculture practices and digitalization to adapt to the growing need for agriinsurance in the Philippines. This risk-mechanism transfer approach is centered on navigating the challenges posed by natural disasters, leading to the urgent need for insurers, stakeholders, and industry leaders to innovate and adapt to protect market sustainability, identify innovative policy solutions, and foster collaboration and knowledge sharing. The current Weather Protect Insurance (WPI) distribution model involves cooperatives as meso-level channels, enrolling farmer- members, and managing payout distribution. According to the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), there are 20,105 registered cooperatives in the country, of which 7,092 (35%) are cooperatives involved in the agricultural sector (CDA Annual Report 2022). These 7,092 agricultural cooperatives are our Total Addressable Market (TAM) for our WPI product, composed of around 1.8 million members (CDA Annual Report 2022).

The Weather Protect Insurance (WPI) team continues to strengthen their strategies to further promote the insurance to cooperatives and their farmer-members in the agriculture value chain.

CLIMBS has continued to champion sustainable development and make a significant contribution to the collective mission of improving the livelihood sustainability of farmers and methods for minimizing the risks of climate change-triggered events. Additionally, CLIMBS participation in the Coop Climate Summit has also had a positive effect on community-centered initiatives such as tree-growing activities, coastal clean-ups, and influencing member cooperatives to foster climate-resilient advocacy.

For Year 3 of WPI, the total data uncovered were 187 cooperatives, 74 covered provinces, 114, 098 farmer-members reached, 570, 490 impacted households, and over P1,253,304.60 payouts given for WPI. Including its new drought product, which has boarded over 47 cooperatives, 16 covered provinces highly susceptible to El Niño, 6,984 farmer-members reached, 34,920 impacted households, and P20,000 payout were conducted for Year 1.

Through the forum hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) promotes knowledge- sharing and collaboration, enabling industry leaders and key players to assess the effectiveness of their programs and services designed for underserved communities and vulnerable populations.