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ZEP-RE Extends Planet Partnership for Drought Insurance Program in Horn of Africa

May 20, 2024

Planet Labs PBC announced a contract extension with ZEP-RE, an African reinsurance company headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. The extension follows a successful first year of collaboration leveraging Planet’s insurance solutions to enhance drought risk protection in the Horn of Africa (HOA) and paves the way for continued collaboration for a 5-year project ending in October 2027.

Today, ZEP-RE uses Planet solutions to expand its insurance program and is currently supporting over 2 million pastoralists affected by drought in the HOA. This is through a drought index that has been customized by location to determine payout amounts, premium rates, and enable direct claims payment to the pastoralists. By year five, the program aimed to reach 1.6 million pastoralists; it achieved this milestone in year two.

“Drought is a persistent threat not only to the health and well-being of livestock in the HOA, but also to the livelihoods of communities, impacting their economic stability, social cohesion, and overall quality of life,” said Berend de Jong, Global Insurance & Finance Lead at Planet. “Our data is a powerful and unique tool for ZEP-RE to develop and execute insurance programs that help protect the livelihood of pastoralists in these drought-vulnerable geographies. Planet data helps provide transparency and trust for all partners involved. The strength of our satellite network enables the continuity of the data service. We look forward to continuing and expanding this critical work together. 

ZEP-RE uses Planet satellite data and reporting to measure vegetation health for an area more than 1,000,000 km2 in the Horn of Africa. ZEP-RE then uses this data to quantify conditions, provide objective measurements of drought, and fast payouts to impacted pastoralists in case of a drought situation.

“Since our partnership began, we have been impressed by the resilience and scope of Planet’s data set,” said Hope Murera, CEO at ZEP-RE. “Through near-daily data availability, we are able to track shifting NDVI values with high frequency helping us be more efficient in our payouts to better serve these vulnerable communities affected by drought.”

ZEP-RE and Planet’s partnership began in October 2022 as part of the DRIVE program, intending to enhance pastoralists’ access to financial services for drought risk mitigation, include them in the value chains, and facilitate the livestock trade. Since then, ZEP-RE has leveraged Planet satellite data to execute the risk protection product to support business continuity and expand its critical work in the region. DRIVE is a World Bank funded project in partnership with the governments of the four participating countries in the HOA; Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.