Developing a Micro-insurance Model for Enhancing Inclusive Resilience in Caribbean States

Recurrent devastation from the impacts of multiple hazards is indelibly imprinted on the social-economic and environmental history of the Caribbean region. These hazard impacts are overwhelmingly climate-related and accelerated climate change is already aggravating impact devastations. Hazard impacts undermine the productive base of the region and continue to stymie sustainable development outlook. Recognition by Caribbean development scholars and practitioners that the best hope for holistically and effectively addressing challenges of recurrent hazard impacts is the adoption of a resilience-approach. This emergent perspective has informed the framing of a Caribbean Pathway for Resilient Development that is aligned with key international initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction 2015-2030. While the framework embodies key principles of inclusiveness it is acknowledged a primary challenge relates to the inability of lower-income groups and the poor to access traditional insurance. Micro-insurance provides a risk transfer tool for economic groups who cannot otherwise access risk transfer tools. However, this tool has to be tailored to the landscape in which the intervention occurs. This paper proposes a micro-insurance model that is appropriate for low-income groups in the Caribbean and outlines the rationale behind the stages of its development.