More than 200 persons with disabilities were among 559 farmers, fishers, MSME and market vendors that received a parametric insurance payout in February following excessive rainfall that led to flooding in the western part of Fiji.

This relatively high number (nearly 40%) was achieved because of the strong institutionalised focus that the UN Capital Development Fund’s (UNCDF) flagship Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme (PICAP or the Programme) places on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI).

The beneficiaries signed up for the novel scheme through a grant partnership between the Programme and the Pacific Disability Forum (PDF), the region’s peak disability inclusion body and advocate.
Globally, persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by extreme weather events.

In Fiji and other Pacific Small Island Development States, the risks are even higher given the region’s susceptibility to extreme weather events. Some 15% of people in the region – 1.7 million people – live with some form of disability.

Madhur Narayan’s story is an example of the unequal risks borne by persons with disabilities from extreme weather hazards.

The farmer from Lautoka, Fiji lives with sells a variety of crops at local markets to earn a living despite the added challenges. Cyclones and floods pose the biggest threats to his farm, livelihood, and home.

Mr Madhur Narayan on his farm in Lautoka, Fiji

Whenever one hits, Mr Narayan must find a way to raise funds for the repairs and restart his life again. This process, he admits, is a struggle as he typically needs to take out expensive loans or dip into his savings due to the lack of affordable and appropriate financial products available to address his post-disaster needs. This time he had insurance cover.

“When I found out about the micro-insurance product, I was immediately interested to buy it because of how fast it [the payment] was,” Mr Narayan said.

Mr Narayan’s experience with parametric insurance shows promise for climate risk insurance as a tool to build the financial resilience and preparedness of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups in the Pacific.

The quick payouts processed digitally and the non-requirement for verification of losses are features that make parametric insurance attractive for those that need immediate post-disaster assistance.
However, making such products more accessible, inclusive, and responsive is an endeavor that requires ongoing attention.

For PICAP, partner and beneficiary feedback are a critical part of this process, and the implementation team works around the clock to maintain open lines of communication with all stakeholders.

In a recent PICAP-hosted ‘reflection workshop’ in Suva, Tepola Rabuli, Programme Officer at PDF, highlighted the unique challenges persons with disabilities face when trying to access insurance products and how these can be addressed.

Ms Tepola Rabuli, Programme Officer at PDF at the PICAP partner reflection workshop

The workshop brought together the Programme’s key public and private sector partners and donors to share and discuss lessons from the inception phase (2021-2022) and to plan for the expansion phase (2023-2025).

The 'reflections' workshop brought together the Programme's private, public and NGO/CSO sector partners

Ms Rabuli called for more targeted interventions to reach persons with disabilities so that they may enjoy the benefits and protection provided by climate disaster risk financing instruments (CDRFI).
To that end, Ms Rabuli highlighted the following as important areas that need continued improvement when implementing the Programme:

1. There are a range of disabilities that need to be accounted and catered for - from physical, hearing and vision, to psycho-social and intellectual impairments. For example, where required, more time should be spent with individuals who process information at different rates. One way to do this is engage community-based interpreters. However, breaking down the technicalities of the programme and relaying it to the interpreters presents an additional challenge.
2. Most community-based interpreters and individuals with hearing and/or speaking impairments have had limited formal education with sign language. Additionally, there is a low number of sign language interpreters in Fiji to accommodate the growing number of persons with disabilities, including those not registered with PDF. Therefore, they practice interpretation signs that are different from the ones taught through formal education. The Programme must carefully consider these nuances to ensure the information is correctly passed and broken down in a digestible format.
3. Reaching individuals with psycho-social and intellectual impairment requires psychologists on the field with partners to provide the needed support to best interact with these individuals.
4. There is also the issue of training venues not being accessible to persons with disabilities. A physically impaired individual may not have an assistive device (wheelchair) to accommodate them from their homes to training venues. Therefore, field teams should be prepared to make door-to-door visits to maximize the impact of their awareness activities.

The Programme aims to continually address these risks by applying an analytical lens to the complex and important issues, needs and circumstances involved in reaching out to all segments of the community, including persons with disabilities.

This is consistent with UNCDF’s broad objective of ‘Leaving no-one behind in the digital era’ and with the goals of PICAP’s Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Strategy.