Developing the Agricultural Insurance System in Palestine

Developing the Agricultural Insurance System in Palestine Terms of Reference

1     INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is an integral component of the Palestinian economic, political, social and cultural infrastructure. In 2011, the agricultural sector accounted for 5.5 per cent of the Palestinian GDP and 11.5 per cent of total employment in Palestinian territories. Moreover, agriculture in Palestine has been an indispensable source of food during the hard times. Agriculture plays a key role in the country food security and people nutrition especially in the face of climate change. Palestine exports quite significant quantities of vegetables and olive oil and other agricultural commodities. The annual exports agricultural export reached $57,000,000, representing 6.3% of total country exports in 2013.However, the agricultural sector is affected by many risks which include unfavorable weather conditions and emergencies. Recently, the risks associated with the increasing climate change including storms, floods, frosts, droughts, and desertification, is considered the most dangerous risks besides the political risks represented by Israeli restrictions. Both types of risks have resulted in the erosion of the agriculture sector’s productive capacity. The restrictions have major implications, such as lack of access to the desired inputs, increased production costs, and low profitability. Moreover, the increasing effects of natural and political disasters causing unprecedented losses and damages that exceed the ability of farmers and Palestinian Authority alike. The Palestinian authority is currently facing some financial difficulties that make it not able always to cover all expenses of both types of damage - climate-related and political. The aggregate value of damages estimated by the Palestinian Agricultural disaster Risk reduction and Insurance Fund in 2014 and 2015 due to natural disasters amounted to NIS 88 million. In order to identify and address this problematic issue, the government needs to overcome the existing impediments and help farmers to fulfill their risk management activities with financial tools such as insurance. Therefore, Agricultural insurance is an effective mechanism for reducing the losses, which farmers incur due to natural calamities.

The Palestinian Agricultural Disaster Risk Reduction and Insurance Fund (PADRRIF) were established in 2013 by the Palestinian Government to address the problems of political and natural risks in order to help farmers managing their risks. PADRRIF is planning to manage agricultural risks through preparedness, risk mitigation, and recovery programs, by providing early disaster warnings, insurance services & aids. This will help farmers to improve their resilience in face of natural and political risks, as well as, to develop the agri-business investment environment, attract production and development projects, and accelerate agricultural development and economic growth. Some expertise like actuarial, which is necessary for product design and risk pricing, is often scarce in developing countries. Without actuarial product design and evaluation, it is not possible to ensure that insurance products are sustainable. There is a good range of skills and expertise that the PADRRIF staff has from their previous roles. However, none of the staff has had any insurance and actuarial experience. Therefore, PADRRIF is relatively new to agricultural insurance and is currently defining its role and activities. PADRRIF staff still requires a substantial skills capacity building in various components of agricultural insurance. This should include knowledge and skills in underwriting, product development, pricing, loss adjustment, insurance wording etc. PADRRIF’s management and employees need a reliable and focused capacity building program on a wide range of topics for the effective functioning of agricultural insurance and disaster risk reduction. The program should be based on the international know how and skills transfer.

2     BACKGROUND

Recently, the European Union, through EUREP, who recruited a group of Experts to assess the current environment in Palestine and design a roadmap for agricultural insurance systems development. On 14th of March 2018 the Experts issued a report that includes all the technical, policy, legal, financial, market and organizational requirements for establishing agricultural insurance in Palestine. The report reflected the analysis of the following sectors: agricultural and insurance industries in Palestine, role of PADRRIF, legal regulatory framework, public private partnership. The roadmap recommended six solution pillars, which include among others building the knowledge capacity of PADRRIF’s staff in all areas related to agricultural insurance. The roadmap also described the pilot implementation case of the agricultural insurance in Palestine. For the benefits of agricultural insurance development, the road map suggested a series of the stakeholders’ workshops, engagement of the international experts and different theoretical and practical training sessions for the local staff.

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Application

Applicants are required to submit following documents to [email protected] by COB 21st of January 2019 with subject line Developing the Agricultural Insurance System in Palestine