Source Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Author: Caterina Meloni, International Gender Equality and Insurance Consultant Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department.
Disasters cost Fiji around 5% of GDP a year, but few people have insurance, and women have less cover than men (13.8% compared with 21.0%). This ADB brief looks at how insurance can close that gap, reviewing Fiji’s parametric insurance pilots, which pay out automatically when cyclone wind speeds or rainfall pass a set level.
The pilots reached 4,296 policyholders in 2025, more than half of them women. The brief also covers selling cover through community groups and cooperatives, and an early-stage climate-risk product for small businesses. It ends with recommendations for regulators, insurers and development partners. For anyone working on climate finance in the Pacific, it shows how risk-transfer products can put money in people’s hands quickly after a disaster, and why designing them around women makes them work better.
