Kenyan cooperative insurer CIC Insurance Group (CIC) on Monday this week launched a five-year project to provide low-income dairy farmers with livestock microinsurance in Kenya.

This venture has been formulated as part of the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation’s (ICMIF) 5-5-5 Mutual Microinsurance Strategy, which aims to enable microinsurance delivered by mutual and cooperative insurers to reach scale in emerging market countries. The 5-5-5 Strategy is a unique initiative which aims to build the resilience of low-income communities by ensuring the provision of low-cost microinsurance.

Kenya is classified as a low-income country, with 33.6% of its population surviving on an income of less than USD 1.90 per day (UN Human Development Report, 2016). The majority of this population resides in rural areas and relies on agriculture including livestock farming for their livelihoods and which is the backbone of the Kenyan economy. However, livestock in Kenya are vulnerable to a variety of risks and the sudden death of a cow can have serious impacts upon a family’s livelihood.

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Tom Gitogo, Group CEO, CIC confirms the proposed impact of the project: “Over the next five years, we plan to issue over 250,000 livestock microinsurance policies to previously uninsured low-income farmers, equating to 500,000 cows insured. CIC will scale up our livestock microinsurance product by partnering with dairy cooperative associations as part of a holistic approach to improving the lives and livelihoods of low-income farmers and their families”.

CIC’s livestock microinsurance policy, first launched in 2009, is a cattle mortality cover for low-income dairy farmers. Through the provision of affordable insurance protection, the farmer is shielded from the financial losses they would otherwise face. As well as providing affordable risk-mitigation solutions, CIC’s livestock policy includes targeted actions on financial literacy training for the intended recipients, as well as access to veterinary services and improved animal husbandry practices. By building an awareness of the role of insurance and providing strategies for risk mitigation, CIC’s project will support the development of a long-term “insurance-friendly” population.

Today’s launch event, hosted by CIC, will be attended by key stakeholders of the project including leaders from CIC, ICMIF representatives in addition to representatives from ICMIF member companies who have been providing support to CIC’s project.

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The project launch event will also include a detailed presentation by researchers SBO Research and ACRE Africa on the ICMIF country diagnostic report into the landscape of cooperative and mutual microinsurance in Kenya, which was used as the basis of CIC’s current project.

The 5-5-5 Strategy in Kenya has so far been supported by two ICMIF member companies; P&V Insurance (Belgium) and Thrivent Financial (USA). Both organisations have been instrumental in helping CIC to formulate the findings from the country diagnostic report into an evidence-based strategy on which to expand their microinsurance operations. Both organisations have even seconded members of their staff to assist CIC’s team with this by visiting the company in Kenya. Fabian Melis (P&V) spent three months in Kenya with CIC and helped develop the project business plan. Also, Dan Wanous and Ellie Anderson (Thrivent Financial) will be in Kenya for two months arriving later in September 2018 to continue this assignment and help future-proof the success of the venture.

We Effect (Sweden) are also providing financial and technical support to CIC’s livestock microinsurance project. We Effect was founded in 1958 to support the development of democratic organisations and societies that have the capacity to articulate the rights and needs of their members in respect of work, influence, services, incomes and livelihoods. ICMIF member Folksam is a founding and active owner of We Effect.

Sabbir Patel, CEO, the ICMIF Foundation said: “We are extremely excited about the launch of CIC’s project which will have a real impact to low-income Kenyan farmers and we really appreciate all the hard work of CIC and all their partners. We believe this collaboration between like-minded organisations will be the key strength for this project to succeed.”

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The ICMIF 5-5-5 Mutual Microinsurance Strategy aims to extend the provision of mutual microinsurance in five emerging market countries to an additional 5 million, previously uninsured households over a period of five years. The intended beneficiaries of the 5-5-5 Strategy reside in poor communities, and the ultimate objective is to build resilience in these communities by providing a mechanism to protect them from the everyday risks they face. The project in Kenya is the third of the five country intervention programmes to have been launched. The 5-5-5 Strategy is predominantly supported directly by ICMIF member companies, and a total of 21 members in 15 countries have so far come together to support the 5-5-5 project.

Fleciah Wambui Kinyua, a former civil servant at the Ministry of Health who was among the 25,783 civil servants who were retrenched in 2000 is now championing cerials, vegetable and dairy farming among others in Kirinyaga after her an unexpected departure from the well-paying job.

“We were retrenched due as a condition set by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to resume lending to Kenya,” said Fleciah.

The retrenchment, catching her unawares, she decided to retreat back to her home in Kirinyaga county. With a lot of time in her hand she started exploring what business ventures she could start to earn income. After months of soul searching and research, she settled on farming having identified growing market for various agricultural produce in her local market.

It would be the best decision she ever made, which has now grown into a five acre enterprise accommodating various tree species, cereals, cabbages, coffee, bananas and cows. Her zeal and passion in this kind of farming would see her feted as the most overall national winner in the women category of the 2014 Elgon Kenya National Farmers Awards.

“When I got retrenched, it was the lowest point of my life. I was used to drawing a salary every end month. I had bills to pay and a family to take care of. I couldn’t imagine how life would be. But I had to think fast,” said Fleciah.

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Fleciah who draws inspiration from her husband who she says has given her the freedom to experiment with anything on their farm has perfected the art of mixed farming which ensures there are no dry days for her and the family. When she is planting maize for example, bananas and cabbages are up for harvest and sale. Her cows also supplement her income with daily earnings.

Aware that Kenyan women make 80 percent of all farmers in the country yet challenges like ownership of land and access to finances means that they never get to enjoy the fruits of their labour, Fleciah set to empower fellow women farmers.

Fleciah is the chairperson of Karinga Farmers Group with 60 active members which teaches farmers agricultural best practices like low cost pest control methods, maximizing on land use and pointing the farmers to ready and well-paying markets.

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Banana, which enjoys huge local and across the country demand, has been the farmer group’s flagship produce and which Fleciah hails for having changed the lives of many farmers in Kirinyaga.

“Training happens in my farm and it has been of benefit to many farmers here especially in spurring them to move to farming as business. Already very many have and the demand for bananas especially from Nairobi is so high that we cannot meet it,” added Fleciah.

With a resolve to get more people especially women to start making money out of agriculture Fleciah has been encouraged women to think smart especially on the challenges of accessing credit facilities.

“Although women say it is hard to access loans because they have no security since the title belong to the husband, these days if you are consistent in your farming, you can use your harvest as security. Take the example of milk, if you supply milk daily to recognized milk buyers like the New KCC that is enough collateral,” she said.

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Such animated approach to farming saw her crowned best woman farmer in Kenya and awarded a trophy by the president. This, she says is a noble gesture that has inspired many who have lost hope.

“Seeing the president’s excitement at hearing what I do and how I survived through the retrenchment, I got more zeal to support our people to go back to farming because it is a business that will never die. People will always need food. And while population is growing, food producers are shrinking,” she said.