IBLI, designed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in partnership with Cornell University and the BASIS Research Consortium, is an index insurance product. It differs from conventional insurance in that it offers a payout based on an index rather than on verification of individual losses, which would prove prohibitively costly in the remote regions of Northern Kenya. The IBLI index is based on satellite data, which measure the quality of the pastureland every 10-16 days. These data are inputs to a statistical model of livestock mortality that the IBLI team developed using historical data from the region. When evolving range conditions predict livestock mortality in excess of a critical threshold (15%) over a predetermined area, the insurance pays pastoralists for their losses, allowing them to manage their individual risk.
