Public and private partners explore solutions to reduce financial risks of climate change

GIZ & Swiss Re workshop with Asian government representatives in Jakarta

More than 90 representatives from eleven Asian countries participated in an executive consultation forum and capacity building seminar in Indonesia to learn and share their experiences on mechanisms how to deal with financial risks resulting from climate change.

Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn (left) – Regional Project Director of BRIA (Better Rice Initiative Asia) moderates a session with Dr. Marqueza Reyes (ASEAN DRFIP), Dr. Aryusri Kumbunlue, Thai Office for Insurance Commission, Norman Cajucom (PCIC, Philippines) (from left).

The event was organized by the “Strategic Alliance on Climate Risk Transfer Solutions” (Strategic Alliance) which is a Public-Private-Partnership project between GIZ and the international reinsurer Swiss Re with the objective to improve access to smart climate risk transfer solutions at sovereign and sub- sovereign level for selected Asian and African governments. It was the first of its kind in the Asian region organized by the two partners and took place between 17 and 21 October in Jakarta.

Asia is one of the most disaster-prone areas in the world has experienced the highest number of natural disasters worldwide in the last 115 years. Since these damages have strong peaks over the years resulting in large economic, social and financial losses, the question arises how states can financially deal with those very strong disasters.

In his keynote presentation Dr. Alexander Jaeger, the Project leader of the Strategic Alliance at GIZ, emphasized that the financial impact of climate change represents a growing financial burden for societies across Asia and that climate risk transfer solutions such as insurance is one promising option how governments can address this worrying situation.

The overall objective of the event, therefore, was to enhance the understanding of government officials on sovereign risk financing and risk transfer mechanisms with regard to climate change risks as well as to increase their technical capacities. Participants represented a wide variety of government institutions (e.g. Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Finance), the private sector (e.g. insurance companies) and development partners (e.g. ASEAN and the World Bank), which further increased learning and knowledge sharing.

Members of ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (ASEAN SAS), Better Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) and Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies (RIICE) teams supported the organization and facilitation of the workshop as their field of work and the partners they cooperate with are strongly linked with the participating audience.

Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, Regional Project Director of BRIA moderated the whole event. Ms. Susan Gille, Project Manager of RIICE facilitated a group work session on Developing a Sovereign Climate Risk Financing Strategy in which country groups with participants from different government institutions jointly work on their specific country issues, looked at existing gaps and developed ideas how to strengthen the disaster risk insurance framework in their countries.

The RIICE project has supported partner countries in Southeast Asia in developing and operating an innovative remote sensing technology which enables them to regularly monitor their rice production and to assess damages in case of natural disasters such as typhoons, floods and droughts. The European Space Agency’s Sentinel radar satellites are the backbone of the RIICE technology. This risk management tool enables policy makers to better respond to the impacts of natural catastrophes in particular when it is embedded in new or existing crop insurance programmes. In 2016/17 the first crop insurance pilot which integrates satellite-derived information is conducted under the umbrella of RIICE.

The activities of the RIICE project complement the goal of the “Strategic Alliance on Sovereign Climate Risk Transfer’s”: Providing governments with smart climate risk transfer solutions. RIICE can play an important part in an integrated disaster risk management approach, consisting of risk identification, assessment, prevention and mitigation and adaptation (risk transfer) by providing the underlying technological backbone. For the future, RIICE intends to strengthen its collaboration with the “Strategic Alliance on Sovereign Climate Risk Transfer” and Swiss Re in Southeast Asia.

Further information:

https://jakarta-2016.climate-risk-insurance.org/
GIZ Sector Programme “Global Initiative for Access to Insurance”: Innovations and emerging trends in agricultural insurance
GIZ Publication Database
Swiss Re Library

Ms. Susan Gille, RIICE Project Manager, presents in a market place session on regional activities and international support on disaster risk insurance solutions.

By Benedikt Lemnitzer, Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies (RIICE)

16/12/201610/07/2017

Sustainable Rice Platform Standard: The world’s first sustainability standard for rice

Sustainable Rice Platform Standard:
The world’s first sustainability standard for rice

Sustainable Rice Platform Certified Rice

Thailand’s Rice Department, Better Rice Initiative Asia project, OLAM International, and Bayer have jointly initiated pilot testing of the Sustainable Rice Platform Standard with farmer groups in the north-eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand.

The Sustainable Rice Platform Standard on Sustainable Rice Cultivation can be regarded as the world’s first sustainability standard for rice.

To strengthen Southeast Asia’s rice sector, Better Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) project, a sister project of ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems, has facilitated various interventions in collaboration with different stakeholders. Beyond the project implementation, the BRIA Regional Secretariat engages in various rice forums which can support the project in achieving its objective of raising the livelihoods of rice smallholder farmers.

The Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) is one of the most prominent of these forums, in which GIZ-BRIA is also a member. With a mission to promote resource efficiency and sustainability in the global rice sector, SRP aims to offer the global rice supply sector a proven set of instruments to facilitate wide-scale adoption of sustainability best practices.

The SRP Standard on Sustainable Rice Cultivation – the world’s first sustainability standard for rice, defines an overall framework for climate-smart sustainable best practice in any rice-based system. The Standard was developed by a dedicated SRP Working Group and launched in October 2015. At the same time, a set of Performance Indicators (PIs) developed by IRRI (International Rice Research Institute), was launched as a quantitative tool to measure impacts of adoption of the Standard, or indeed any other farm-level intervention towards sustainability. SRP is now focusing on a multi-country field validation programme of the Standard, PIs, and assurance system, an activity to which BRIA is also actively contributing.

BRIA has supported the development and adoption of the SRP Standard in the four BRIA pilot countries, apart from on-farm activities for farmer empowerment. BRIA has been conducting pilot studies as part of the SRP’s multi-country field validation programme to assess the applicability, relevance and acceptability of the Standard to BRIA farmers as well as piloting the implementation of assurance schemes including the Internal Management System (IMS) for farmer groups in key rice producing countries. BRIA works with local authorities and private partners in these interventions.

BRIA Thailand and BRIA Indonesia have been actively participating in the SRP pilot testing. In Thailand, the pilot testing covers an assessment of the applicability of the standard, farmer training, establishment of an IMS, and a group assurance system. In Indonesia, BRIA is conducting a farmer survey to assess compliance of BRIA farmers to the SRP Standard.

Thailand’s Rice Department (RD), BRIA, OLAM International, and Bayer have jointly initiated pilot testing of the SRP Standard with farmer groups in the north-eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani. RD, Olam, Bayer are among the 55 SRP members. Besides, Olam, a major commodity trader, is also a partner in BRIA’s market linkages component. The pilot testing of the standard in Thailand is also considered as one of BRIA’s interventions to improve market access for rice farmers in this area.

This year, pilot testing of the SRP standard in Thailand has been verified through a 3^rd party audit. The audit results demonstrated improvements in farm performance compared against the baseline. Twenty-eight farmers from Bua Ngam Community Rice Centre (CRC) and 43 farmers from Klang CRC have been verified as “working towards sustainability” (as provided for in the SRP’s Communication and Assurance Guidelines (Pilot Phase). According to this independent 3^rd party assessment, the farmers’ compliance levels to the SRP Standard average 84% against the SRP Sustainable Rice Cultivation Standard. Since improvement at farm level may not be enough, BRIA believes the Standard will offer innovative business models to help strengthen business relationships among rice value chain actors and to enhance market linkages.

In Indonesia, an assessment survey was carried out by a local university at the end of August to early September. BRIA farmers from the three districts of Serdang Bedagai, Langkat, and Deli Serdang in North Sumatra Province, have been selected. According to this self-evaluation, BRIA ID farmers have complied at an average score of 68.7% against the Standard. The result of this study will later form the basis for further assessment by the Ministry of Agriculture on adoption of the SRP Standard in Indonesia.

The results of the pilot studies in this year will be collected and provided as feedback to SRP in order to improve the Standard and refine the assurance system. All in all, it can be concluded that the Standard has been proven as a helpful tool to assess sustainability performance of rice farmers and as an impact monitoring tool identify the risk and areas for improvement.

By Kamol Taukitphaisarn, Better Rice Initiative Asia

26/05/201607/08/2017

The Global Agribusiness set to support Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Chris Brown, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability for Olam, a member of the Sustainable Rice Platform, delivered a video message to the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya. The second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-2) began in Nairobi on Monday 23 May 2016, with a call for concerted efforts to revitalize the green economy and sustainability agenda. Environment ministers and representatives from over 170 countries, scientists, industry executives and campaigners are attending the five day global environmental assembly, UNEA is the world’s highest-level decision making body on the environment.

In a message sent to the meeting, UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for UN member states to hasten implementation of instruments that advance low-carbon and inclusive development.

OLAM International is one of the partners of Better Rice Initiative Asia, a sister project of ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems