Oxfam America and Swiss Re Empower Famers in Ethiopia

1. BUILDING AND SCALING A CROSS-SECTOR PARTNERSHIP:
Oxfam America and Swiss Re Empower Famers in
Ethiopia
Adu Ohene Emmanuel (60814)
Kshitiz Shah (61510)
Makumator-Jones Jacquelyn (61588)
Marie Cliare Endoh (60463)
Kwabena Ofori (61437)
June, 2017
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2. Introduction
Overview about Ethiopia
SWISS RE and OXFAM
Development of SWISS RE and OXFAM partnership
The HARITA project
Conclusion
Reference
AGENDA
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3. • Cross sector partnership is a collaborative effort in
which parties from different societal sectors poll
resources to provide solutions to common problems.
• It has a life cycle constituting of 2 phases with 4 stages
What to consider during negotiations
 The issue the partnership addresses.
 The aim of the partnership.
 The objectives and how it will be measured.
 Duration of the partnership.
 Duties, responsibilities and sphere of activities of each
partner.
Partnership lifecycle
Partnership resource centre (May 2012)3
Introduction

4. Located in East Africa, its has a total population of about
80 million and GDP of $61.54 billion.
In 2009, UNDP ranked it 171 out of 182 countries in the
annual human development index ranking.
About 85% of the population are engaged in subsistence
farming and 14million faced food insecurity in 2009.
Climate change is greatly affecting the country’s
agricultural sector with the prevalence of heavy
droughts in most areas.
(Jonathan Doh et al: building and scaling a cross sector partnership)
Overview of Ethiopia
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5. Founded in 1970, Oxfam is an independent international Relief and development organization.
It has a total revenue of about $86million.
To create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger and social injustice.
save lives by offering humanitarian aid.
campaign for social justice.
develop programs that help people over come poverty.
They also partner with both local leaders and organizations
and of recent they started partnering with the private sector.
(Jonathan Doh et al: building and scaling a cross sector partnership)
Oxfam America
Mission
Objectives
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6. It is a leading global reinsurer company and part of the SWISS RE group of companies founded in 1863.
It offers financial services products that enables risk-taking, essential to enterprises.
Mission: to be the leading player in the wholesale reinsurance industry.
They bear some of the risk bore by insurers which helps to prevent bankruptcy
They offer valuable intellectual capital to direct insurers.
They also act as trusted advisors on products and contract design.
They are being paid a premium by the insurer for the services
(Jonathan Doh et al: building and scaling a cross sector partnership)
Swiss Re
Their Services
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7. In April 2007, an annual conference on corporate Sustainability called CERES was held.
Members of Oxfam‘s Private Sector department headed by their Senior Policy advisor Majorie
Victor Brans participated in the conference to explore new opportunities.
Oxfam realised there was a growing need for Innovative approaches to help farmers mitigate risk
associated with Climate change and food security.
This information was gathered by their regional office in Ethiopia who also suggested possibilities
of crop micro insurance for farmers.
(Okios case collection,2012)
Development of Swiss Re and Oxfam Relationship
Formation
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8. At the conference, a panel discussion during which Mr. Way from the Swiss Re‘s central
Sustainability and political risk management highlighted their partnerhsip with Clinton Global
Initiative on Climate adaptation development program.
The goal of the CADP was to develop a commercial market through creating financal risk
transfer instrument that provided financial protection against weather risk for approximately
600,000 people in Africa specifically focused o Mali, Ethiopia and Kenya.
This led to Oxfam‘s senior advisor poundering on a collaboration with a large private insurance
company like swiss re since their company‘s interest might truly align.
(Okios case collection,2012)
Development of Swiss Re and Oxfam Relationship
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9. There was some challenges prior to the pioneering of the partnership between the two Organisations.
Firstly, was Oxfam convincing Swiss Re that the partnership wouldnot expose them to unprecedented
risk and uncertain benefits.
Secondly, sentiments from members of Oxfam suggesting that a large multinational corporation would
only engage with poor people by exploiting them.
Last but not the least, PSD was new department and lacked relationships with program stuff at
Oxfam who were not certain about the departments mission and scope at the time.
(Okios case collection,2012)
Development of Swiss Re and Oxfam Relationship
Challenges
9

10. Swiss Re hesistant to commit financial resources.
Swiss Re saw potential in Oxfam
Swiss Re potential to expand their business
(Okios case collection,2012)
How agreement was reached
Development of Swiss Re and Oxfam Relationship
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11. Agreement based a project to serve subsistence farmers in the village of Adi Ha and make the
project as transparent as possible.
Swiss Re served in the capacity as a technical advisor as well as a funder whiles Oxfam‘s
reputation as an advovate still remained.
Renewable sponsorship to reduce Swiss Re‘s risk level and committed $250,000 to initiate the
project
(Okios case collection,2012)
Development of Swiss Re and Oxfam Relationship
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12. HARITA, a holistic risk management model was a project involving Oxfam America, Swiss Re
and over dozen of local and international partners.
To develop a scalable, rights-based model for empowering communities in Ethiopia to adapt to
climate variability and change by piloting an insurance instrument.
To integrate risk-reduction measures as part of a holistic approach to risk management.
(Oxfam America. 2009)
Horn of Africa Risk Transfer and Adaptation - HARITA
Goals
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13. HARITA operates under four key premises;
Local communities should be the focus of adaptation efforts.
Adaptation needs to be robust to multiple climate scenarios.
Adaptation could be strengthened by the public sector.
Community-level processes need to roll up into coherent regional, national and international level
processes.
(Oxfam America. 2009)
Conceptual Framework
Horn of Africa Risk Transfer and Adaptation - HARITA
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14. Horn of Africa Risk Transfer and Adaptation - HARITA
Conceptual Framework – 3R’s
14(Oxfam America. 2009)

15. Horn of Africa Risk Transfer and Adaptation - HARITA
15
Conceptual Framework – R3
Risk-Reduction
(Minimizing Vulnerability)
Activities include making
and using compost
Small scale water
harvesting and nitrogen-
fixing trees
Cleaning teff seeds to
enhance productivity and
controlling weeds
Risk-Transfer
(Micro-Insurance)
Prudent Risk-Taking
(Credit)
Complemented risk reduction
activities by recovery from
climate shocks
Insurance-for- work (IFW)
against deficit rainfall
Wahisna Package: Weather
index insurance based on a
proxy for loss and a
verifiable measure of
weather
Access to credits
Engage in smart risks like
buying tools, high yield
seeds
Livelihood diversification
Technology adaptation
such as seed varieties
value added economic
activities
(Oxfam America. 2009)

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Horn of Africa Risk Transfer and Adaptation - HARITA
Barriers to Weather Index Insurance
How to integrate insurance with risk reduction
How to engage farmers meaningfully in insurance design
A way to overcome weather data barriers
How to increase insurance take up by farmers
Other Challenges
Poor access to formal insurance
Fears about affordability
Low awareness of insurance
Insufficient methods for gathering
information
Voluntary donations to farmers for
teff yield loss in 2009
(Oxfam America. 2009)

17. 17
Horn of Africa Risk Transfer and Adaptation - HARITA
Successes
Improvement of the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and
integration of numerous risk reduction activities.
Identification of farmers’ vulnerabilities to specific hazards and their
capacity to adapt through vulnerability assessments.
Exploration of new techniques to enhance sparse local datasets
through combination of satellite imagery, rainfall simulators and
statistical tools.
Increased insurance take up by farmers by employing culturally
popular education methods developed in conjunction with farmers
(Oxfam America. 2009)

18. 18
Horn of Africa Risk Transfer and Adaptation - HARITA
Female-Headed
Households
Male-Headed
Households
Farmers
paying in
cash
Farmers
paying
in labor
Total
Farmers
paying
in cash
Farmers
paying
in labor
Pilots results of the Wahisna Package (HARITA POLICY), MAY 2009
Farmers willing to purchase insurance by
Gender and Payment type
Average Premiums paid per Households
by Method of Payment
(Oxfam America. 2009)

19. 19
Horn of Africa Risk Transfer and Adaptation - HARITA
HARITA- Outlook Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture
RISK
REDUCTION
RISK
REDUCTION
RISK
TAKING
RISK
TRANSFER
RISK
TAKING
RISK
REDUCTION
RISK
TRANSFER
RISK
RESERVE
PSNP
WFP + REST +
International Donors +
Govt. of Ethiopia
HARITA
Oxfam America + Swiss
Re + REST + IRI+ Nyala
R4
WFP + Oxfam America +
Swiss Re + Communities
+ Partners
(Oxfam America. 2009)

20. 20
THANK YOU!!!

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REFERENCES
(The Rockefeller Foundation (2011). Climate Change and African Agriculture - HARITA. 24-25)
CNA. 2015. “Risk Transfer: A Strategy to Help Protect Your Business.” CNA.com.
Jonathan Doh, T. L. (2012). Building and Scaling a Cross-Sector Partnership: Oxfam America and
Swiss Re Empower Farmers .
Meze-Hausken, E. (2004). contrasting climate variability and meteorological drought with
percieved drought ann climate change in Northern Ethopia. climate research.
Oxfam America. 2009. “Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA): Project Brief,” no.
August: 1–7.
Partnership resource centre.(May 2012).cross sector partnership formation; what to consider
before you start?

22. REFERENCES
• Can the R4 model be implemented in other countries in the Horn of Africa?
• Do you think the cross-sector partnership between SWISS RE and OXFAM can
sustain other projects in the future??
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Discussion/ Question