Climate insurance boosts resilience in Kyrgyzstan

In 2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) launched a Climate Risk Insurance (CRI) project to assist vulnerable households, such as those of Aijan Talasbek Kyzy, impacted by climate change. CRI is a weather index-based insurance policy that covers lack of feedstock due to droughts and harsh winters.

Aijan lives with her husband and four children in the mountainous Naryn province of the Kyrgyz Republic. The family lives in a village at 2 600 m a.s.l. – but higher altitudes offer little protection from temperature rises and erratic weather extremes. In particular, droughts interrupt farming and food production and have a particularly serious effect on livestock. 

“There was a lot of rain in spring and no rain during the summer, there was a drought,” says Aijan. “From our fields we usually harvest 800 kg of barley, but this year we harvested only 500 kg. At the end of August, it started raining a lot. By the end of September, it was snowing. We had many losses. Our cattle died.”

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Please find the video on Climate Risk Insurance and the impact story published in the Mountain Partnership publication: "Promoting innovation and tradition - Solutions for climate change adaptation in mountains."

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When weather patterns defy expectations, harvests fail. As people struggle to grow crops, there is less hay to stockpile for sustenance during winter, posing a threat to the health of animals. Working with the Government to assist smallholder farmers, in 2023 WFP piloted the country’s first climate-risk insurance scheme, with support from Switzerland.

Disasters caused by climate change – such as droughts, mudflows and floods – are becoming one of the main drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition in the Kyrgyz Republic. Indeed, such climate-induced disasters have increased by 150 percent since 2010 (Asian Development Bank and World Bank, 2021).

This project aims to enhance the resilience of rural communities to extreme weather-related risks by providing financial protection against climate-related shocks through insurance.

 “WFP provided trainings on climate-risk insurance for livestock,” says Jipariza Omurkanova, a social affairs specialist at the local government. “And through the insurance, fodder was provided. Fodder is expensive now. As you see, the climate is changing, people can no longer store as much fodder as before.”

The climate risk insurance pilot is an important step forward in building climate resilience in the Kyrgyz Republic. Its success lies not only in its immediate positive impact on vulnerable families, but also in fostering a more resilient and sustainable future for farmers and food systems in the country.

In 2023, an insurance payout was triggered due to summer drought in the Ak-Talaa district of Naryn province where Aijan lives, benefiting 792 families below the poverty line with 26.3 metric tonnes of barley as feed for their livestock. The barley was chiefly used to help the animals of the most vulnerable groups in the district to stay alive during the long winter period.

WFP, alongside international partners, is committed to further reducing vulnerability to shocks and strengthening the adaptive capacities of rural communities through innovative solutions, such as insurance. 

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Please find the video on Climate Risk Insurance and the impact story published in the Mountain Partnership publication: "Promoting innovation and tradition - Solutions for climate change adaptation in mountains."