The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-pro t, scienti c research organization focusing on the sustainable use of water and land resources in developing countries. IWMI works in partnership with governments, civil society and the private sector to develop scalable agricultural water management solutions that have a real impact on poverty reduction, food security and ecosystem health. IWMI is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.
Climate variability already poses a significant threat to humanity, with the poor and most vulnerable at greatest risk. It is expected that such section of society will become more exposed to climate shocks as a result of climate change. South Asia, and India in particular, is at high risk. India's economy is closely linked to its natural resource base with over 700 million people in the country dependent on climate-sensitive livelihood sectors such as agriculture, water, and forestry that are further threatened by the impact of climate change (GoI 2008). These threats, however, will not be felt uniformly. Renewable freshwater already varies considerably across the country. With the growing hydro-climatic variability, much of India is expected to receive a larger volume of its precipitation during extreme rainfall events, such as in western and peninsular India, while other areas will experience fewer wet days, more dry days, and a heightened frequency of extreme events. Numerous options are emerging that are promising from an overall water resources perspective and provide greater resilience for those exposed to increasing climate-related risks. In this context, jointly with the Government of Bihar, International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and ICAR RCER are organizing one day workshop to discuss risk management solutions that promote better resilience among small and marginal farmers and vulnerable communities in promoting the advances in satellite technology and modeling tools through innovative risk transfer solutions involving insurance and drought monitoring to support preparedness as well as contingency plans for agricultural drought management.
Growing population, poor management of land and water resources, and increased exposure to extreme climatic events have left a large number of people vulnerable to floods. Floods lead to widespread destruction and human tragedy, severely impacting infrastructure, agriculture and ecosystems. Agricultural communities are subjected to severe economic pressure from flood-induced losses. However, over the last few decades, evidence has emerged that a broader approach through planning, building regulation and early warning systems can significantly reduce flood losses. Index- based flood insurance (IBFI) is one such solution that is both cost-effective and can better target post- disaster relief to compensate agricultural losses. The event was coordinated by Dr. Giriraj Amarnath (Sub Theme Leader: Water-related Disaster and Risk Management of IWMI) and the workshop was inaugurated by Sh. Anil Sinha (Senior Advisor & Mentor, Hazard Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation and former VC, BSDMA), and opening remarks from Mr. Jeremy Bird (Director General of IWMI), Dr. L S Rathore, (former DG, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD)), and Dr. Alok Sikka (IWMI India Representative), who gave the welcome remarks. Participants from government bodies, agricultural banks, public and private insurance companies involved in the workshop to exchange ideas and expertise on development of Business model for Index-Based Flood Insurance (IBFI). Experts attended the workshop from multiple organizations including National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), NABARD, UN-ESCAP (New Delhi), Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC), CCAFS, CDOT, Bajaj Allianz, ICICI Lombard, HDFC ERGO, Royal Sundaram General Insurance, Skymet Weather Service Pvt. Ltd. and others. The objective of the workshop is to present the progress of the IBFI business model and discussion about improving the value-chain process in index insurance and way forward in implementation of the product in 2017 monsoon season in Bihar. To briefly discuss existing business modeling approaches and the case studies and obtain feedback from participants, three presentations (presented by Dr. Giriraj Amaranth of IWMI, Dr. Ravinder Malik of IWMI and Dr. Avinandan Taron of IWMI) were presented respectively on Project progress, IBFI Business Model and Economic analysis and Business model implementation in Indian Scenario. During the workshop, group discussions were supported by broad communications between participants from government bodies, private insurers, public and private banks and others.
The frequency and severity of extreme climate events are increasing the world over (IPCC 2014). The devastating effects of such events are intensified in areas where there are high rates of poverty and limited resources and capacity for disaster recovery. Risk sharing and transfer instruments like insurance are contributing to the efforts of governments and households to reduce immediate and long-term financial impacts associated with extreme weather events. These could go beyond supplying post-disaster liquidity for relief and reconstruction measures to also support ex-ante measures that reduce vulnerability. Resilient climate risk management that involves a balanced mix of approaches could also introduce insurance solutions as part of an 'integrated climate risk management' approach. The international community recognizes risk management and insurance as a means to managing climate-related risks during major global climate negotiations. Several initiatives have been taken by organizations to develop a comprehensive risk management framework that includes risk transfer tools such as insurance to address the loss and damage caused by extreme climatic events. Institutions are now placing considerable importance on agricultural risk management (ARM). The experience and knowledge gathered over the years could be used to develop more comprehensive strategies to cope with the risks faced by the agriculture sector. But insufficient knowledge transfer between countries, lack of a structured collection of lessons learned from management systems, as well as low uptake of innovations in ARM constrain development of such strategies. Organizations involved in these initiatives in Sri Lanka include national (the Ministry of Finance, National Insurance Trust Fund [NITF], Disaster Management Centre [DMC], Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka [[IPS] and SANASA Federation Ltd.) and international (International Water Management Institute [IWMI], World Bank/Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery [GFDRR], and the International Labour Organization [ILO] of the United Nations [UN]. Within this context, IWMI, in collaboration with Epic Lanka, Fairfirst Insurance and other partners, identified the need to foster an exchange of knowledge and bring together the experiences on ARM available in Sri Lanka. The partnership aims to develop a more structured collection of data on good practices and lessons learned in ARM for the use of local policymakers and rural development practitioners. It also identifies the necessity of exploiting synergies among relevant development organizations to promote private sector partnerships that would generate greater impact for the insurance research community in Sri Lanka. A workshop on Agricultural Insurance held on Friday March 9, 2018 at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) headquarters in Pelawatte, Battaramulla, took the initial steps towards achieving these aims. About 45 professionals from the public, private and development sectors involved in areas of insurance and research attended the sessions.
Recycling and reuse of treated wastewater are an important part of the sanitation cycle and critical in an environment such as urban India with decreasing freshwater availability and increasing costs for delivering acceptable quality water, often from far distance. This report has been developed as a possible guidance document for the Indian government and gives substantial focus to the financial and economic benefits of wastewater recycling from the perspective of public spending. The report presents possible strategies for city and state planners and policymakers in view of the sanitation situation and the role of wastewater recycling in the larger cities in India (class I and II cities and towns with populations above 50,000), and focuses on recycling at the end of sewerage systems after treatment at sewage treatment plants.
International Water Management Institute (IWMI) with the support from CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF, Japan), agreed to develop innovative financial risk transfer solutions particularly suitable for implementing in countries with large small holding farming communities against flood losses. IWMI along with the its partners has now developed an innovative Index-based flood insurance1 (IBFI) scheme to be piloted in two countries Bangladesh and India to increase the short term coping capacity of small holding farmers against flood risk. Sirajganj in Bangladesh and Muzzafarpur district in India are selected for IBFI pilot. The current stage of IBFI2 project requires additional efforts focusing on piloting the project in Bangladesh and India during the 2017 monsoon season. This innovative approach aims streamline and fasten effective insurance payouts, so that it money reaches affected farmers in timely manner. The project integrated advanced numerical modelling techniques for constructing long term flood patterns, high resolution remote sensing data and statistical models to predetermine flood thresholds, which could trigger speedy compensation payouts. Effective end-to-end solutions is being developed in collaboration with a range of organizations and experts from central and state government bodies, private insurance firms, community-based organizations (CBOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The workshop is jointly organized by IWMI and IWM.
Representatives from State and Central government agencies, NGOs, private insurance companies, farmers and development partners met on August 1st 2015 in Bihar, India to exchange ideas and expertise in an inception workshop for a new project on developing 'Index-Based Flood Insurance (IBFI) in South Asia'. The workshop saw enthusiastic participation from both government and private sector participants. The day long workshop was inaugurated by Chief Guest, Dr. C.P. Thakur, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and was attended by experts from multiple organizations like Agriculture Insurance Corporation (AIC), GIZ, Department for International development (DFID), BSDMA (Bihar State Disaster Management Authority), Agriculture Department- Bihar, Flood Management Improvement System (FMISC), National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), IFPRI, private insurance firms like Bajaj Allianz, Swiss Re, farmers and others.
Introduction -- Economic conceptualization of international water management problems -- Legal perspectives on institutional design -- Empirical evidence of international water management institutions -- The role of the problem structure for institutional design and cooperation -- The role of issue linkage for the resolution of unidirectional externality problems -- The role of organizations for cooperation -- Synthesis and conclusions
Recycling and reuse of treated wastewater are an important part of the sanitation cycle and critical in an environment such as urban India with decreasing freshwater availability and increasing costs for delivering acceptable quality water, often from far distance. This report has been developed as a possible guidance document for the Indian government and gives substantial focus to the financial and economic benefits of wastewater recycling from the perspective of public spending. The report presents possible strategies for city and state planners and policymakers in view of the sanitation situation and the role of wastewater recycling in the larger cities in India (class I and II cities and towns with populations above 50,000), and focuses on recycling at the end of sewerage systems after treatment at sewage treatment plants.
