Global Micro in the Making: The Marketization of Weather Index Insurance for Agriculture in Africa

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Untouched by the current crisis of radical market-oriented policies, market integration continues to serve as the dominant one-size-fits-all approach for poverty reduction and economic development in the Global South. One frontier of current marketization processes is constituted by the nexus of climate change adaptation and financial inclusion. Debates about climate change suggest that countries in Africa are particularly vulnerable to altering climate patterns. Hence, the management of weather-related risks in agriculture has turned into an urgent topic and in consequence has been put at the forefront of the global agenda by international development organizations. Index-based weather insurance products for small-scale farmers are expected to respond to these new and emerging needs. By constructing markets for the poor, microinsurance programs are contributing to the broader development agenda of microfinance. Development economists and practitioners currently design and implement this market-based risk transfer as a new adaptation tool. This research project problematizes markets by studying the emergence of weather-related insurance markets on a micro level in African contexts. It does so by analyzing the global production of market models for microinsurance products and their subsequent translation into specific settings in West- and East Africa. This mobility triggers processes of mutual adaptation. Because African sites are serving as testing grounds for the finance industry, not only are local societies transformed to conform the model, but simultaneously the model itself will be altered in processes of marketization. Therefore the role of development economists is a central subject of scrutiny insofar as they essentially contribute to the performativity of economics in general and the making of index-based weather markets in particular. The research is inspired by theoretical insights from various strands of science and technology studies. It not only takes into account the constitutive role of technologies such as economic models, economic experiments and various calculative practices, but also processes of organizing and signification that are indispensable in producing and stabilizing new markets. Empirically, the research addresses three different contexts and scales: First, there is a focus on the international microinsurance scene and the production of global knowledge related to index-based insurance. Second, the market-oriented localization and adaptation of this knowledge and relevant practices within exemplary case studies in Ghana, Ethiopia and Kenya are analyzed with a specific focus on processes of subjectification and individual responsibilization. Third, the generation and translation of economic knowledge via economic experiments such as randomized control trials and lab experiments regarding index-based insurance is reconstructed.