We supported the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company to design a sovereign parametric insurance product for excess rainfall events, strengthening financial resilience across 14 Pacific Island Countries. The product uses advanced rainfall modelling to trigger rapid post-disaster funding and support economic stability.
The Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are highly exposed to natural hazards including tropical cyclones, earthquakes, intense rainfall, and meteorological drought. Their size means that extreme events often impact the whole country, with severe consequences for national economies. To strengthen financial resilience, the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company (PCRIC) contracted JBA to support the design of a sovereign-level parametric insurance product for excess rainfall (XSR) events.
JBA developed a robust technical foundation for PCRIC’s new insurance offering by:
Given the remoteness and diversity of the islands, and the lack of significant river networks, we created a new stochastic event set from high-resolution satellite rainfall data, for use in our Global Flood Models. Rainfall totals observed over 24 hours are compared against island-specific thresholds derived from our probabilistic flood model, which incorporates both population and property exposure to estimate likely emergency costs. Outputs are displayed through a bespoke web-based monitoring system developed by our software team.
Example output from PCRIC’s rainfall monitoring tool. Rainfall is measured across the 10km-by-10km calculation grid (black squares). Red grid cells indicate where daily rainfall has exceeded the 5-year return period rainfall for that cell.
The project enabled PCRIC to launch its excess rainfall insurance ahead of the 2023/24 South Pacific Tropical Cyclone season, now available to all 14 countries in its portfolio. The product provides governments with reliable financial support, with payouts made within 15 working days of a qualifying event. This rapid funding helps countries meet urgent recovery needs without undermining fiscal stability or development progress. The approach also allows cumulative assessment of multiple events across a season, ensuring sustained support in years of heightened rainfall activity.
Contact our team to learn more about this project.
