All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) was the first agency in India to design a combination of life and non-life disaster insurance products for disaster victims through public insurance companies in 2004, supported by the ProVention Consortium. Since the first pilot in Gujarat, AIDMI has pioneered a series of action-learning pilots on disaster micro-insurance across India. The Afat Vimo (disaster insurance) scheme covering 19 types of disasters was first piloted in Gujarat in 2004 and was later extended to 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami victims in Tamil Nadu and 2005 earthquake victims in Jammu and Kashmir. In 2011, the pilot scheme was extended to the floods and cyclone victims in Odisha through Society for Women Action Development (SWAD) with support from the European Union in partnership with Concern Worldwide India and later on in 2013 with support of Climate Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) the study on the effectiveness of disaster insurance conducted.

This input paper is directly in relation to priority for action 4 – underlying risk factors and their reduction and CI3 – reducing the vulnerability of economic activities with a focus on poor and vulnerable communities. It is focused on the guiding questions – 2nd of Economics – What role do factors such as insurance play? The input paper establishes evidence for policymakers and practitioners to promote and strengthen disaster insurance for vulnerable areas of India and other developing countries. It is taking preparedness measures further, from reducing the death toll (like the 2009 Aila Cyclone and 2013 Cyclone Phailin) to reducing the economic loss of poor and vulnerable communities.