Uncertainty in the drylands: Rethinking in/formal insurance from pastoral East Africa

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cg.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Oregonen
cg.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Sussexen
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Livestock Research Instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationInstitute of Development Studies, United Kingdomen
cg.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Amsterdamen
cg.contributor.donorVetenskapsrådeten
cg.contributor.donorEuropean Unionen
cg.contributor.donorSwedish Research Councilen
cg.coverage.countryEthiopia
cg.coverage.countryKenya
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2ET
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2KE
cg.coverage.regionEastern Africa
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x231168396en
cg.issn0308-518Xen
cg.issn1472-3409en
cg.issue8en
cg.journalEnvironment and Planning A: Economy and Spaceen
cg.subject.ilriDRYLANDSen
cg.subject.ilriPASTORALISMen
cg.subject.ilriINSURANCEen
cg.volume55en
dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Leighen
dc.contributor.authorMohamed, Tahira Shariffen
dc.contributor.authorScoones, Ianen
dc.contributor.authorTaye, Masreshaen
dc.date.accessioned2023-10-31T12:27:31Zen
dc.date.available2023-10-31T12:27:31Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/132574
dc.titleUncertainty in the drylands: Rethinking in/formal insurance from pastoral East Africaen
dcterms.abstractAmidst climatic and economic volatility, agricultural development and climate adaptation policies have increasingly turned to weather microinsurance to manage uncertainties, particularly in dryland pastoral and agricultural settings. While the political embrace of insurance has been cause for concern amongst those who fear insurance will undermine embedded coping mechanisms and moral economies, economists have puzzled over low insurance adoption rates amongst target populations. This article argues for an approach that scrutinizes insurance in relation to dynamic social practices and norms for responding to uncertainty. We employ this approach to investigate pastoralists’ encounters with index-based livestock insurance in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia. Drawing on interview, ethnographic, and survey data, we demonstrate how insurance is understood within larger moral economies and collective imaginaries for living with and managing uncertainty in the drylands. Relational understandings shape pastoralists’ participation in risk-sharing arrangements, collective and individual decisions about livestock insurance purchase, and eventual uses of insurance payouts. Payouts also support a broad array of social reproductive purposes and investments in social and political life. As we conclude, these findings upset the binary between formal and informal insurance, revealing how “formal” index insurance must be negotiated with embedded social affiliations, rights, obligations, and understandings of uncertainty.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.available2023-05-26
dcterms.bibliographicCitationJohnson, L., Mohamed, T.S., Scoones, I., Taye, M. 2023. Uncertainty in the drylands: Rethinking in/formal insurance from pastoral East Africa. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Spaceen
dcterms.extentpp. 1928-1950en
dcterms.issued2023-05-26
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-4.0
dcterms.publisherSageen
dcterms.subjectadaptationen
dcterms.subjectadoptionen
dcterms.subjectagricultural developmenten
dcterms.subjectclimateen
dcterms.subjectdevelopmenten
dcterms.subjectdrylandsen
dcterms.subjectinsuranceen
dcterms.subjectlivestocken
dcterms.subjectparticipationen
dcterms.subjectpastoralistsen
dcterms.subjectplanningen
dcterms.subjectpoliciesen
dcterms.subjectrisken
dcterms.subjectusesen
dcterms.typeJournal Article

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