The Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) organized the workshop 'Climate risk and agricultural insurance in Bolivia' in La Paz, capital of the country. This event was part of the project of research 'Understanding agricultural insurance in Bolivia', funded by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) in the field of agricultural insurance.

Twenty-three people participated, including local researchers; NGOs working with small farmers; representatives of the Inter-American Bank development and Swiss Cooperation in Bolivia; and government agents, such as the Minister of Rural and Land development , the National Agricultural Insurance high school and the National Statistics Office. Representatives of commercial banks and private insurance companies also attended. Also present were Alex Armand and Joseph Gomes, researchers from the 3ie-funded project , and Sergio Daga, PhD student of NCID.

During the workshop, seven contributed sessions were held. First, Ricardo Nogales, researcher of the Private University of Bolivia, presented his work 'Towards an insurance based on the climatic index in Bolivia'. Then, Franklyn Condori, Minister of development Rural and Lands, showed the progress in management of risk in Agriculture.

Agricultural insurance market in Bolivia

Germán Gallardo, from high school Nacional de seguros Agrícolas (INSA), commented on the results of the last four years of publicly subsidized agricultural insurance. He also outlined INSA's plans to offer commercial agricultural insurance in the future.

Edwin Vargas, PROFIN Foundation, described the experience of this business in the development of six pilot projects on agricultural insurance in Bolivia. Ricardo Rocabado, National Statistics Office, explained in detail the results of the most recent Bolivian Agricultural Censuses.

Lastly, two members of private insurance companies, José Alfaro, of Sudamericana Seguros, and Christian Piñera, of La Boliviana Ciacruz, spoke about their experiences in the agricultural insurance sector.

The workshop opened the discussion on the most pressing constraints that have hindered the good growth of the agricultural insurance market in Bolivia. Most interventions highlighted the need for more information on climate. Participants also agreed that there is a need for more academic work on this topic, as well as more pilot programs to test various paradigms and find out how to increase the uptake of insurance among small and medium farmers.

Understanding agricultural insurance in Bolivia' is a project of the Navarra Center for International Development belongs to the Institute for Culture and Society of the University of Navarra.