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Pitch

C.II.M.A makes use of climate information and provides social protection services through a virtual assistant to help vulnerable communities


Description

Summary

Climate change Adaptation, Absorption & Resilience is about planning and acting for a more variable and uncertain climate. In order to do this, we must first be able to increase our ability to tackle the climate today. Then we must plan for increased flexibility in our ability to respond to changes in our future climate. Information on projected weather conditions together with agronomic advisories is critical in enabling farmers to make informed decisions.

Innovative solutions to enhance access to reliable and usable climate information could mitigate the negative impact of climate change.

 

This mobile application serves 2 users.

  1. Vulnerable communities and individuals. These are the end user that are in need of climate risk insurance.
  2. Insurance professionals. It handles all the information needed for developing a strong climate Insurance database.

Based on the principle of insurance (Utmost good faith) C.II.M.A proposal seeks to ensure all relevant facts by anyone seeking climate risk insurance are addressed and that appropriate climate information is collected and analyzed for future use.

Through this innovative solution, we hope to link climate risk insurance with other forms of social protection as well as climate information to help out the most vulnerable in the society affected by climate change.

 


What actions do you propose?

Proper planning using up to date climate information could minimize negative impact of climate change on people's livelihoods and economy. Accurate & decision-relevant climate information is critical to plan & minimize negative impact of climate variability

For this to be achieved there needs to be community driven initiatives that are successfully changing people’s lives for the better; that are helping communities respond to real and expected climate change risks.

By having a registry of affected people C.II.M.A seeks to address administrative challenges associated with delivering effective social protection services by providing the necessary information to assist insurance agencies.

The proposal seeks to:

1 - Identifying vulnerable users.

C.II.M.A will keep up to date detailed information about Vulnerable communities and individuals. For instance

  • Location - Helps identify where they live
  • Mobile number - For prompt payments via mobile money.
  • National ID – Foor verification purposes.
  • Ewallet - Offer a new avenue for digital payment methods which is both prompt and secure.

The app can also be used as a smart contract that digitally facilitates the contract between the insurer and insured thus cutting off any third parties.

Through identification of the users the insurer can best determine their risks and needs in their communities.

2 - Record climate risks and shocks.

This is done to know the severity and occurrences of such risks ever happening again. By closing the knowledge gap we can ensure long-term development planning.

By this the affected users can understand the vulnerability, past, present and future, in order to build knowledge and capacities.

3 - Generate Climate Information For Use.

Through the Climate Information Mobile App, we plan to offer an interactive interface with weather icons that are easily identifiable by farmers.

By delivering minute-by-minute precipitation forecast, hyper-localized to a farmers exact area, farm address or GPS location as shown in the below figures, we aim to enhance delivery of climate information.

In the below figure, Push notifications (a message that pops up on a mobile device) created by App publishers is used to send a notification for severe weather alerts in the area to the specified farmer or users in the community.

4 - Provide adaptation methods.

Through the app, sustainable agriculture / ecological agriculture can be fostered to improve agricultural production, health and natural resources. For instance farmers can share Management practices that increase soil organic carbon (SOC) content through organic matter management as shown below. This information can be shared with farmers in (ASALs) Arid and Semi-arid lands where climate change effects have adversely affected the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Other adaptation techniques include:

  • Early warning systems for severe weather.
  • Vulnerable communities can be informed of livestock uptake programs by the government ministries
  • Sensitization on best farming practices

5 - Production Reporting.

Vulnerable groups will submit reports for instance: Number of cows sold or number of cattle lost to drought. The same goes for crops whereby yields for the current crop year are assessed based on previous years.

6 - Indemnity.

Help identify the exact compensation required to restore the policy holder they enjoyed before the loss occurred.

7 - Payment / Disbursement of funds.

Users can have options of withdrawing cash from their banks or have additional options of getting certified seeds for replanting or purchasing livestock. This method of cash transfer will be fast and efficient.

 

 


Who will take these actions?

The proposal is hinged on coordination efforts by a number of public, private and civil society organizations. Thus actions to be taken here vary across the different key actors involved, as shown below

  1. Organization’s (business or non-government organizations) that represent, work with, or intend to work with, communities that are vulnerable to climate variability and change in Kenya.
  2. County governments, national, or local/community-based
  3. Partnerships between communities, innovators and climate science providers and will be able demonstrate the greatest impact at community level over the course of the program.
  4. ICT service providers like Safaricom and Airtel, both of who will have another accolade to their name that they can use for advertisement and community service through their corporate social responsibilities.
  5. Agricultural Extension Officers, Staff at the Meteorological Department of Kenya, all of who will benefit by seeing the different opportunities for partnerships and shared information.
  6. Insurance Agencies


Where will these actions be taken?

Performance of agricultural sector, the mainstay of Kenyan economy, is heavily dependent on climate. Adaptation is key to sustainability.

 

These actions to be taken will have the most impact in developing countries. Especially the Arid and Semi-arid lands (ASALs) regions

The proposal seeks to be implemented and scaled up in such Hot Spots where climate change effects have adversely affected the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers within the agricultural sector.


What are other key benefits?

It is estimated that annual cost of impact of climate change in Kenya could be as much as USD 500 million a year or 2.6% of GDP. Agriculture mainstay of Kenya's economy, is almost entirely rainfed. Variability in rainfall not only impacts livelihoods but entire economy. Thus we aim at

Benefits include

  1. Strengthening and scaling up the capacity of individuals and households to adapt to climate change.
  2. It targets poor populations with high vulnerability to climate shocks and stressors and
  3. Enables farmers adapt to varied climatic conditions. This helps to mitigate crop loss
  4. By registering, insurance companies can cover the loss is calculable thus insurance company can estimate the frequency of losses in so doing know how much the losses might be.
  5. The app reduces humanitarian impacts, help poor and vulnerable people recover more quickly, and strengthen local resilience over time.
  6. Increased security. Apart from national identification numbers photos of users can also be uploaded


What are the proposal’s costs?

Based on geographic size, location of community and manpower required, estimated Total approximations come to about $ 220,000

  • App Development = $ 40,000
  • Community engagement Scale up & Replication = $ 150,000
  • Project Evaluation and Monitoring = $ 30,000


Time line

Apps take a good deal of time to plan out, design, develop and launch. While they rarely take as long to develop as a full software application or website, they typically take at least two to three months to develop from start to finish.

Short Term Timeline - (1st Month – 3rd Month)

  1. Sourcing of funds
  2. Architecture & Planning. All facets of the app are thought out. Beyond a simple idea of what the app needs to do and how it needs to look. Basically the entire app is mapped out from start to finish.
  3. Design. Comps are created to show how the app will look. Color schemes are implemented, images are inserted and place holder text is generally used at the start of this phase with it being replaced by the actual content either at the end of this phase or during development.
  4. Development. Design is turned over to the developers so that they can properly code the application.
  5. Testing. This phase ensures that the app works properly, all databases are connected, there are no broken links in the app, and everything works as was designed.
  6. Deployment. The app is submitted to Google or Apple and awaits approval.

Medium Term Timeline - (4th Month – 11th Month)

  1. Identification of local communities to engage with.
  2. Management and monitoring of test/demonstration.
  3. Awareness and Sensitization of communities.
  4. Environmental and Social Impact Assessments
  5. Scale Up & Replication.  Here is whereby the proposals geographic scale is expanded.

Long Term Timeline - (1st Year – 2nd Year)

  1. Measurement and Monitoring.
  2. Verification - Independent agencies will then ensure that the projects are being implemented successfully. 
  3. Permanence - Is the life of the project .The most desirable are  projects that have Built resilience and capacity to understand and effectively respond to climate extremes and climate-induced disasters


Related proposals

None


References

  • The Yale Environment Review
  • Dreampipe
  • Android App Development Timeline