Insurance aims to help herders avoid 'downward spiral' from drought
Pioneering insurance efforts equipping East Africa’s herders with drought insurance to help them cope with weather worsening droughts in Kenya and Ethiopia, are now being replicated as far away as Peru and Guatemala, reports Reuters AlertNet. Insurance "allows a much more predictable mechanism for households to plan and manage their risk," said Richard Choularton, a senior policy officer focusing on climate change and disaster risk reduction for the World Food Programme (WFP). "(Herders) are fantastic risk managers. All they lack is the tools to do it even better," he continues. "Reducing risk has to be the starting point, not just transferring risk."