Parametric insurance for education in Kenya: process evaluation of the Climate Resilient Education Systems Trial (CREST)

This evaluation of IRC's Climate Resilient Education Systems Trial (CREST) pilot in northern Kenya looks at what happens when parametric insurance meets education, and offers practical lessons for others looking to follow. CREST addresses a familiar problem - how to keep children learning when climate shocks disrupt schooling - through an unfamiliar set of tools: linking parametric drought insurance with delivery mechanisms that provide unconditional cash transfers and remote education to affected families that include learners.

The evaluation draws out insights through a qualitative exploration of four performance criteria: accuracy, timeliness, relevance, and cost versus benefit. The key findings against these criteria as follows:

• Accuracy: The trigger fired during a genuine drought event, but the disruption it meant to proxy (falls in school attendance) did not occur. On that measure, the payout outcome did not align fully with expectations.
• Timeliness: The time between trigger and response was fast by sector standards, though the response still arrived later than the ideal moment for action.
• Relevance: The response activities addressed a priority risk for communities and government, but since school attendance held steady during the drought, the case for a response was open to question.
• Cost versus benefit: While stakeholders felt parametric insurance offered real advantages over reactive, ex-post financing, its costs ran higher than expected, and the team ultimately conceded it was perhaps not the best instrument for the job.