Palestinian Agricultural Sector
The relevance of agricultural insurance derives from the importance of the agricultural sector itself in social and economic development in Palestine. The country is rich in agricultural biodiversity; enjoys a variety of climatic and geographical variations that enables diversity in terms of agricultural production; and benefits from its ability to keep abreast of agricultural technological development. The Israeli occupation however proliferates drivers and vulnerabilities including the confiscation of land, fragmentation of Palestinian territory, control over water and resources especially in Area C, limited access to international and national markets, and military and settler violence. Despite manifold Israeli-restrictions on Palestinian access to resources, movement, and trade, which have led to an overall decline of the sector, agriculture remains an important source of food security, livelihoods, and export revenues. Although impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic and operating under Israeli restrictions which have resulted in continuous loss of land and water, the percentage contribution of agricultural activity value added of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated to reach 7.6% according to 2021 forecasts. Further, agriculture provided jobs for 6.2% of the employed, in the third quarter of 2021, as well as providing a secondary source of income for many more households in the occupied Palestinian territory, where farming widely depends on family labour. Women play a critically important but often unrecognised role in the sector, supplying 87% of the labour input in livestock production and 54% in rain-fed crop production (Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2020).
The overall economic importance of agriculture, however, is not confined to the sector itself, as it has forward and backward linkages with sectors such as industry, retail and wholesale trade, transport, tourism, and hospitality services, that rely on it either as a source of inputs or as a market that absorbs their outputs.
Over and above its economic roles, agriculture is an intrinsic component of the Palestinian cultural and social fabric, playing a crucial part of the national narrative and with a privileged place in literature, songs, and other artistic expressions. It has come to symbolise Palestinian resilience and perseverance in the face of ongoing land loss due to prolonged occupation and the expansion of Israeli settlements. Within the context of political volatility, one of the world’s fastest growing populations, and increased climatic variability exacerbated by environmental degradation, the risks faced by farmers and producers and other agricultural value chain actors are expected to increase, unless effective measures are taken to better protect the agriculture sector.
Within the context of political volatility, one of the world’s fastest growing populations, and increased climatic variability exacerbated by environmental degradation, the risks faced by farmers and producers and other agricultural value chain actors are expected to increase, unless effective measures are taken to better protect the agriculture sector. As described by climate change experts, climatic risks will potentially increase with future climate scenarios for Palestine projecting a rise in temperature, a decrease in average annual rainfall, translating into an increase in the risk of drought, and an increased risk of flood with the wettest days becoming more frequent. While currently, farmers and producers who have incurred such risks are partially supported through direct loss compensation, a more optimal system of professional risk transfer – insurance – is necessary especially with increased vulnerability of farmers and producers to risks.
A 2018 demand survey, administrated on a sample of nearly 100,000 small-scale producers conducted by the Palestinian Agricultural Disaster Risk Reduction and Insurance Fund (PADRRIF)to assess the attitudes of farmers and producers towards agricultural insurance, revealed that 83% of the respondents expressed the need and their willingness to participate in an agricultural insurance scheme when it is available and ready. This is a clear indication for PADRRIF to move forward in activating an agricultural insurance programme.
Project Background
The ‘Building the Palestinian Agricultural Insurance Systems and Services’ project is a 36-month action lead by Oxfam together with the Economic and Social Development Centre of Palestine (ESDC), and funded by the EU. The action aims to increase the resilience of Palestinian farmers and producers against shocks resulting from production risks including climate change and infrastructural risks with the specific objective of putting in place an operational and sustainable agricultural insurance system and services through the Palestinian Agricultural Disaster Risk Reduction and Insurance Fund (PADRRIF), with the participation of the private sector.
The project is based on the prominence of the agricultural sector in the Palestinian national context and intends to minimise the ongoing risks that farmers and producers face, and thus ultimately enhance the state of Palestinian agriculture in terms of its role, importance, strengths, and contribution to the overall economy.
The project is built on a previous EU-funded technical assistance project Developing the Agricultural Insurance System in Palestine: Pre-Development Phase, through which a group of experts were recruited to assess the current environment in oPt and prepare a ‘Roadmap on Agricultural Insurance Development’. The roadmap, issued in March 2018, describes technical, policy, legal, financial, market, and organisational requirements for establishing agricultural insurance in Palestine, and was developed with the full participation of PADRRIF and key stakeholders. It also builds on and scales up the ‘Developing the Agricultural Insurance System in Palestine’ pilot project funded by the Government of Sweden and led by Oxfam in partnership with PADRRIF, ending in 2019.
Following these earlier initiatives, PADRRIF implemented aspects of a risk study and created risk definition guidelines.
Assignment Objectives and Expected Results
The Agricultural Insurance project is focused on building the insurance system with and throughthe different stakeholders to increase the resilience of Palestinian farmers and producers against production and market risks in the agricultural sector, arising from the impact of climate change and other infrastructural risks. The project’s direct capacity building objective aims to better understand and gain more knowledge of agricultural insurance main functions and operations, so a focused technical capacity building programme for stakeholders mainly in the public sector will be developed (as part of the project). The main stakeholders will be PADRRIF, MoA, and PCMA; while the participation of private sector and local civil society may also be envisaged, for instance training sessions involving Palestinian Insurance Federation (PIF), individual insurance companies, and farmer unions.
To realize the capacity building programme transformative change and to increase the capacities and confidence of partner organization under this project, Oxfam is seeking to contract a trainer (Individual trainer, or a training centre/company) to build the capacities of partner organizations on the general topics of agricultural insurance, and agricultural insurance system. The consultant is envisaged to accompany partners in exploring concepts and ideas, personal challenges and aspirations to strengthen their understanding of agro-insurance and organizing their skills paths.
Expected results
Based on the outcomes of this assignment, the consultant is expected to:
- Introduce participants to the general insurance principles and practices.
- Introduce participants to the specific agro-insurance principles, requirements, and practices and how it is different from other types of insurance.
- Enhance mutual understanding of how agricultural insurance generally works among the various stakeholders (with examples of how it works within the Palestinian context).Help creating an enabling environment for mutual dialogue on the creation of new relationships, collaborations, and joint actions between participating stakeholders; thus indirectly contribute towards increasing the understanding of agricultural insurance system in Palestine.
Assignment Scope of Work
Oxfam is seeking to contract a trainer/training centre to conduct a general training on the main topics and principles of agricultural insurance for partner organizations staff in the West Bank (mainly middle to high management staff, part of which will be “Agro-insurance Insurance System steering committee members” and PADRRIF’s board members). The overall objective for this training is to train and equip partners organization with knowledge and general skills on agricultural insurance definition, main agro-insurance topics and its principles, explanation of how the agricultural insurance system will work. This training will be the first step in the process of scaling up project interventions, and will help in:
- Unifying the terminologies and understanding of agro- insurance as a new topic for the Palestinian insurance industry and agricultural sector stakeholders and help in developing the specific technical capacity building programme. We expect to generally define and introduce the agro-insurance operations (Ex: underwriting, loss adjustment, policy wording, reinsurance. Etc.)
- Increase knowledge on how insurance works at local and international levels - mobilizing general public/constituents’ other key players to ensure collective efforts in establishing and scaling up of project interventions.
- Dissemination of general references, and evidence-based documents (such as study papers, sample manuals, sample guidelines, sample handbooks, sample regulations … etc.) that will be considered as further references for partners to facilitate partner organization capacity building at different levels.
How to apply
A detailed description of the assignment, services required by Oxfam and conditions of participating in this bidding is contained in the RFQ dossier and can be downloaded from the following link:
The deadline for submission of bids is Feb 11,2023 upon conditions in the RFQ dossier.
Responses (Offers) shall be sent only to (procurement.jerusalem@oxfam.org)
Offer shall be sent in 2 separate files - PDF format - (one for Technical Offer and one for Price Offer)
Oxfam does not bind itself to award the tender to the lowest offer and reserves the right to accept the whole or part of the tender.
We look forward to receiving a proposal from you and thank you for your interest in our account