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On September 06, 2019, an index-based insurance seminar was held in Addis Ababa, with 12 participants mainly from insurance companies. Japanese experts explained the nature of Japanese insurance companies, index-based insurance in other countries, and disaster trends in Ethiopia, after which they held active discussions.

The "Index-based Crop Insurance Promotion Project for Rural Resilience Enhancement Project" launched in March 2019 aims to promote "Resilience Enhancement Packages (REPs)" that combine index-based insurance products, agricultural materials, and agricultural technologies. The project has started activities in the four target areas together with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Oromia Agricultural Bureau, and made a series of discussions on insurance design and promoting products with private insurance companies in Addis Ababa.

At this index-based insurance seminar, Mr. Fukuwatari from SOMPO Risk Management, the Japanese insurance company under SOMPO_HOLDNG Group, introduced the (1) history of SOMPO, (2) concept of Index insurance, (3) cases in Southeast Asia, and (4) disaster frequency and disaster trends affecting people in Ethiopia. Mainly, he presented the concept of the index insurance and the difference between index insurance and indemnity insurance. In fact, Index insurance has some advantages like no loss survey, swift payment, and no moral risk. Therefore, in the counties where the insurance system is not developed, there is a tendency that index insurances are preferred. In addition, although it seems that the frequency of floods is very high from historical data in Ethiopia, drought is overwhelming as a disaster affecting people.

After the presentation, various opinions were exchanged among participants about insurance in Ethiopia and Japan, and the necessary information for developing index insurance was obtained. Such discussions made this seminar a fruitful opportunity for all participants.

Mr.Fukuwatari (SOMPO Risk Management) made presentation about index insurance, and disaster trends in Ethiopia.

JICA experts and representatives from insurance companies exchanged ideas during discussion.

The participants actively joined the discussion, and brought fruitful result