Case studies on rural insurance in Africa.

Abstract

Insurance is an institutionalized mechanism to provide cover against contingencies of life and/or exigencies of circumstances beyond the control of an individual or entrepreneur. Such contingencies might be death; disability; partial loss of limb, theft of property or national hazards, like failure of rain, hail storm, drought, flood, fire and so on. The frequency and extent of severity of such risks are actuarially predictable; including for those, who reside in the rural sector and are engaged in agriculture and other economic activities. Africa is rural with subsistence-oriented agriculture as its main economic base, and may remain so in year 2000 and beyond. The central message of the monograph is that if the farmers either perceive or are educated enough to appreciate that it is in their own interest to organize themselves and operate an insurance scheme, they will do so as the tobacco farmers of Zimbabwe did way back in 1938 or get themselves insured as the other three case studies show. Such enlightened collective decisions will thus facilitate the process of technological change and productivity gains required for rural transformation, which is sine quo non for Africa's self-reliant and sustainable development.