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HomeSector NewsGroundbreaking Farm Insurance Program Kilimo Salama Wins FT Sustainable Finance Award

Groundbreaking Farm Insurance Program Kilimo Salama Wins FT Sustainable Finance Award

Kilimo Salama won the Financial Times’ award for Technology in Sustainable Finance, recognizing their groundbreaking work to provide smallholder farmers with access to insurance cover using innovative technology and approaches.

The FT’s Award for Technology in Sustainable Finance recognizes organizations and initiatives that are addressing the scarcity of essential goods and services across society and those that demonstrate leadership and innovation in addressing environmental, social and corporate governance considerations in business.

Kilimo Salama (Kiswahili for ‘safe farming’), a partnership between the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and UAP Insurance, is an innovative, pay-as-you-plant, index-based, micro-insurance program for smallholder farmers in Kenya and the first in the world to use a mobile network-based platform and on-the-ground solar weather stations to provide smallholder farmers with low-cost insurance policies.

“When it comes to drought, most farmers have no choice but to simply pray for rain. And if the rains don’t come, the crops don’t grow. At a time of global change, Kilimo Salama is giving farmers more options so they can meet these challenges and prosper,” said Marco Ferroni, Executive Director of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.

Kilimo Salama has seen an eventful second year marked by severe weather and explosive farmer demand for insurance to mitigate current and future weather risk. Kilimo Salama has just completed one of the largest index insurance payouts ever experienced on the continent has insured nearly 64,000 farmers for the next season. They are currently making plans to expand to other countries in the region beginning with Rwanda.

Now in its seventh year, The FT/IFC Sustainable Finance Awards are the major global awards for environmentally and socially responsible banking and investment. The 2012 Awards attracted 161 entries from 145 financial institutions and 36 non-financial groups in 67 countries.

The awards were presented at a gala dinner in London attended by around 200 senior decision-makers in finance and sustainability. The event followed a one-day Sustainable Finance Conference organized by the Financial Times and IFC.

The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture is a non-profit organization based in Basel, Switzerland whose mission is to create value for resource-poor small farmers in developing countries through innovation in sustainable agriculture and the activation of value chains. SFSA’s two-pronged approach aims to improve livelihoods by raising agricultural productivity and linking farmers to markets. For more information, please visit: http://www.syngentafoundation.org/.

UAP Insurance Company Limited is one of the leading insurance and financial services companies in East Africa, with headquarters in Nairobi and a network of branches spread across Kenya. Regionally, UAP is the second largest insurer in Uganda and the first foreign underwriter in Southern Sudan. UAP’s origins can be traced back over 80 years. UAP recognizes that to achieve leadership the company must be revolutionary, customer focused and inclusive. We continuously innovate and set the pace for the market. UAP has taken leadership in developing Agricultural Insurance product for Kenya. Currently UAP is offering indemnity based Multi Peril Crop Insurance and Livestock Insurance products to a wide range of farming communities in Kenya. UAP sees index-based insurance solutions as a promising way to offer coverage to the big number of Kenya’s smallholder farmers in the future. More information on UAP Insurance can be found onhttp://www.uapkenya.com./

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