The Amazon Basin is home to approximately 47 million people across nine countries, including more than 2.2 million Indigenous people from over 500 different groups. Many communities live in remote, low-connectivity areas with limited access to transport, healthcare, education, markets and other essential services. These existing vulnerabilities are compounded by severe floods and droughts, which can isolate communities, disrupt livelihoods and essential services, and increase food insecurity and health risks. In 2024 alone, severe drought put nearly half a million children across the Amazon at risk, while more than 1,700 schools and 760 health centres became inaccessible.
To strengthen the financial resilience of vulnerable communities to these risks, the InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF) is co-funding the development and implementation of an index-based insurance solution in collaboration with VisionFund International (VFI), World Vision offices in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, World Vision Switzerland, and Global Parametrics, part of CelsiusPro.
The project will adapt an existing meso-level insurance model to the specific needs of World Vision’s Amazon Basin Initiative (ABI), providing pre-arranged financing for emergency relief and recovery following severe floods or droughts. By enabling insurance payouts when predefined thresholds are reached, the solution will provide World Vision’s country offices with additional financial resources to respond more rapidly and effectively when disasters occur, complementing existing humanitarian response budgets and reducing reliance on post-disaster fundraising.
The insurance structure will be tailored to the climate exposure of the areas where the Amazon Basin Initiative operates and to the vulnerability of the communities it serves. Global Parametrics will lead the technical development of the insurance solution, while the Natural Disaster Fund (NDF), for which Global Parametrics serves as implementing partner, will provide access to the risk capacity required to underwrite the coverage.
VisionFund International, part of World Vision, will act as project lead and oversee overall project management, while providing technical assistance to the participating World Vision country offices. World Vision Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Peru will act as meso-level aggregators and policyholders and will be responsible for implementing immediate relief and emergency response activities financed through potential insurance payouts. World Vision Switzerland will provide additional technical support and match the premium subsidy funding provided to the project.
The four World Vision country offices have established local presence, disaster response plans and networks of community organisations across the target areas. In the event of a payout-triggering flood or drought, these existing structures will enable funds to be translated rapidly into locally appropriate interventions, strengthening the capacity to reach affected households and communities when support is most urgently needed.
The project will particularly support communities facing high levels of socioeconomic vulnerability, including children, women, young people, older people, people with disabilities and Indigenous communities. Across the target population, more than 45% experience food insecurity, while limited access to decent employment and essential services further reduces households’ ability to absorb and recover from climate-related shocks.
By combining pre-arranged risk financing with World Vision’s established humanitarian response capacity, the initiative aims to enable faster and more effective disaster response across the Amazon Basin. An independent impact evaluation will assess the benefits for affected communities, the cost-effectiveness of the insurance mechanism and its potential for future scale-up, providing evidence for how index-based insurance can complement humanitarian financing and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities to increasingly severe climate risks.
Managed by Frankfurt School
GRMA hosted by ISF
