Research was recently undertaken in Fiji’s Central Division to understand the differentiated disaster risks for urban market vendors to contribute to the ongoing development of parametric insurance products under the UN Capital Development Fund’s (UNCDF) Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme (PICAP). A key aim of the research was to explore how parametric microinsurance could be used as a risk transfer tool. Understanding people’s risk perception is critical to designing effective adaptation strategies (Walshe et al. 2018), including parametric insurance. Additionally, the impact of disasters are not the same for everyone (Sultana 2014). Consequently, the research aimed to examine the differences in the risks faced by iTaukei men, iTaukei women, Indo-Fijian men, and Indo-Fijian women.

A qualitative photo elicitation method was used in the study to understand and compare how people perceive risks. Photo elicitation involves adding photographs into the research interview (Harper 2002). Qualitative methods allow the researcher to better understand experiences of participants (Kalof et al. 2008) and photo elicitation helps centre the participants’ voices, reducing the bias of the researcher in the process (Margolis and Pauwels 2011). Other benefits of photo elicitation include aiding in the retention and recall of memories, feelings or events (Collier 1957; Mannik and McGarry 2017). It can also enhance communication between the researcher and participant (Clark-Ibañez 2004).

Permission to conduct the study in the Suva and Nausori Municipal Markets was sought from the Market Masters that are appointed by the Fiji government to oversee day-to-day operations. The market vendors were then identified and asked to take five pictures highlighting what they value about living in a place that might be threatened by a disaster. An interview date and time was organized for each participant. The interviews were focused on the meaning of the photographs, hazards affecting things in the photographs, potential impacts of disasters, and coping and adaptation strategies, including financial strategies. With the assistance of project officers from UNCDF, interviews were conducted in the language of the participants choice, including English, Hindi, or iTaukei. Given the time constraints and challenges in securing participants, a second adjusted research method was also utilized. After some initial interviews, key themes were identified, and photographs printed from free-access pictures on the internet. These were used in the interviews instead of asking participants to take their own photographs. Out of 20 participants, 12 used the initial method while 8 provided responses using the adjusted method. There were four iTaukei men, five iTaukei women, five Indo-Fijian women and five Indo-Fijian men who participated.

KEY THEMES

Preliminary results were found by examining the terms most frequently mentioned in the interview transcripts. The top five terms mentioned for all participants were “house”, “cyclone”, “flood”, “money”, and “farm”. The transcripts were then grouped by gender and ethnicity of the participants to provide an indication of what each group focused on during the interviews (figure 1). The preliminary results indicated women may be more concerned by flooding than men, with “flood” being the top term mentioned by women and only the sixth most mentioned term for men. Similarly, floods were the second most mentioned term for iTaukei participants while only the seventh for Indo-Fijian participants. Farms were more often the focus of men compared to women. Looking inter-sectionally, Indo-Fijian men focused more on their house compared to iTaukei men; whereas iTaukei men focused more on cyclones and floods. There were more similarities among the women participants: Indo-Fijian women only focused slightly more on their house compared to iTaukei women; and iTaukei women only focused slightly more on floods than Indo-Fijian women.

Figure 1: The figure shows which terms were more frequently spoken about by each group of participants. The highlights (connected red circles) show how the figure can be interpreted: Farms were the third most frequently spoken about topic for men, but the ninth most frequently spoken about topic for women. Floods were the third most spoken about term for Indo-Fijian women but the tenth most spoken about topic for men.

OTHER THEMES + COPING STRATEGIES

While not addressed in the preliminary analysis of the transcripts, other themes became evident throughout the interviews as well. For example, participants were concerned about earthquakes, landslides, and persistent low rainfall, especially in the dry season. Coping and adaptation strategies that were discussed included tying down houses, installing window shutters, and digging drains to mitigate flooding, although the latter strategy was not always successful. Becoming a market vendor was a coping strategy for some people who lost their jobs due to COVID. The pandemic was also blamed for income decline by longer-term market vendors. Large differences in income were also evident. For example, some participants were purely intermediaries who bought goods from farmers to sell in the market and had generational wealth to pay for and stock multiple stalls. Other intermediaries were extremely poor, only able to purchase a small amount of produce from farmers to sell in the market, thereby making little income. Similarly, some vendors had their own farms from which they supplied their market stall. Where one family member could stay in the market with the other on the farm, more income could be made by virtue of extended selling hours. However, in some cases vendors only sold at the market a couple of days a week and spent the other days on their farm, thereby limiting the income they could make.

CONCLUSION

The early results of the research suggest some – but not all -- market vendors could view parametric insurance as a potentially useful adaptation tool. For example, farm owners who perceive risks from cyclones could see benefit in parametric insurance as a tool to manage the risks. However, while parametric insurance does cover drought in other contexts, it is not intended to payout every year so may not be deemed useful by market vendors who view low rainfall during the annual dry season as a larger risk compared to cyclones. Further analysis will be undertaken over the coming months to identify themes and differences within the data that could inform the future development of parametric insurance solutions to better meet people’s needs in Fiji.