The Satellite Index Insurance for Pastoralists in Ethiopia (SIIPE) programme was a pilot initiative that has tested a weather-index microinsurance product combined with disaster risk reduction interventions with the aim of protecting pastoralists in the Somali region of Ethiopia from climate shocks. Selected pastoralist households already participating in the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme have been able to access insurance coverage on a voluntary basis.
The impact evaluation was performed in the Somali region over the one-year period (2017/18) of the pilot initiative. It aimed to:
1. Understand if (and how) the SIIPE intervention had provided greater protection to pastoralists against climate risk, for example their ability to keep their animals alive during a drought;
2. Understand whether there was any behavioural change (e.g. on productive decisions, use of financial services) connected to improvements in confidence brought about by SIIPE;
3. Measure the changes in well-being (such as food security) of individual households that could have been attributed to the programme.
The impact evaluation methodology combined a randomised controlled trial at the level of households living in the SIIPE pilot areas with a complementary quasi-experimental component including households in non-pilot areas. The econometric and qualitative impact analysis used data from baseline and endline surveys of pastoralist households conducted by the evaluation team in the Somali region.
The evaluation was used to decide on further scale-up of the intervention in Ethiopia, inform about potential replication in other countries, and to glean lessons learnt for the design of future interventions. Its results have also been used to refine and improve the product and processes of the SIIPE programme.
Report available here: https://www.wfp.org/publications/ethiopia-satellite-index-insurance-pastoralists-2017-2019-impact-evaluation