2021 Articles

Workshop Report: ACToday Vietnam - Fundamentals of Index Insurance Course, March 2020

Timm, Benjamin

In 2017, President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University announced a new initiative aimed at improving the links between academic research and real-world problem-solving. Through this initiative, called Columbia World Projects, President Bollinger challenged the Columbia community to identify big global problems and apply Columbia-based research to solving them. The first Columbia World project aims to help countries achieve Sustainable Development Goal

2 (SDG2): “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture,” by developing nation’s climate services. The project is called “Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow,” or “ACToday,” and is led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Another unit at IRI, The Financial Instruments Sector Team (FIST) has been a key partner scaling many index insurance projects around the world. The Financial Instrument Sector Team has developed a suite of weather index insurance educational materials born out of years of experience and expertise that incorporates a participative philosophy through interactive exercises which have been instrumental in the design and the scaling of index insurance products.