After the successful development of a bundled microinsurance product for farmer groups, the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) explored the demand for a specific insurance product for fishers in Fiji.

Access to affordable insurance products allow Pacific Islanders to prepare themselves to better deal with the economic shock followed by unforeseen events, such as cyclones. For this reason, the PFIP conducted a research to better understand the risks that fishers face when they are out at sea, how they perceive these risks and the actions that they take to deal with them. The knowledge gathered from the research provides insurers in Fiji with key insights to help them design a suitable insurance product tailored to these fishermen.

Summary of Findings The research shows that awareness about insurance is quite low. For example, 60% of people interviewed on the island of Kadavu said that they had never heard of insurance before. And even if the respondents heard about insurance, most of them generally do not know how insurance works. Nonetheless, once they had been provided with a brief explanation, almost all found value in the idea of insurance and were interested in hearing more about it.

The Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme is currently assessing how this type of insurance product can be incorporated into a new programme specifically designed on climate related insurance coverage for the region. Read more here.

This research was conducted with support from the Pacific Community (SPC), and the Ministry of Fisheries Fiji, and made possible by the UNDP administered Disaster Resilience for Pacific Small Developing States (RESPAC) project, funded by the Russian Federation.