Focused on Kenya, this report forms part of the series “Scaling Insurance for Climate Resilience in Africa”. The series is produced by Krutham, as commissioned by the African Climate Foundation (ACF). The reports are aimed at policymakers, development practitioners, insurance professionals and stakeholders interested in climate adaptation in Africa.
The purpose of these reports is fourfold. First, they aim to engage the insurance industry in each country and facilitate a dialogue on its role in climate risk management. Second, they aim to inform policymakers and regulators of how they could enable a more strategic and coordinated response to the physical risks posed by climate change, including by facilitating a greater role for the insurance sector, especially in providing coverage for climate risks to the most vulnerable societal groups. Third, they raise the question of what role the insurance sector should play in funding and otherwise supporting national adaptation efforts. This is particularly relevant to the ACF’s and partner organisations’ ongoing work on developing Adaptation and Resilience Investment Platforms in several African countries: nationally-led platforms that aim to improve coordination and mobilise funding at scale for priority adaptation measures in critical economic sectors. Finally, while the reports focus on specific countries, they are intended to provide valuable insights for other countries on the continent, too, on how to improve their climate resilience.
This report explores: (i) how climate change is expected to affect the economy and the insurance sectors in Kenya, (ii) how insurance can further contribute to a holistic and strategic approach to climate risk management, based on Kenya’s disaster risk management framework (iii) how the Kenyan insurance market and regulatory framework could be leveraged to enable the sector to further support efforts in addressing the consequences of climate change, including what existing climate insurance products and programmes already offered are, and (iv) what other opportunities could be explored for the Kenyan insurance sector to participate more broadly in adaptation and resilience. The report ends with a list of practical recommendations to address the challenges the analysis has identified and detailed considerations around their potential implementation.