Bringing parametric protection to rural women farmers across India - powered by local women entrepreneurs.
Global Parametrics Arijana Antunovic, meeting with local women entrepreneurs
We are proud to share that a major milestone has been achieved for our 'She Leads Bharat: Mahila Kisaan Initiative’.
Frontier Markets, India’s leading rural social commerce platform, in close collaboration with Global Parametrics, part of the CelsiusPro Group, has developed a gender-smart parametric insurance solution designed to safeguard smallholder women farmers in four districts across Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
The product is designed to cover excess moisture and drought risks during the upcoming Rabi season, Nov 2025 – Apr 2026. This solution was made possible through the Frontier Markets’ AI-enabled Meri Saheli App, and its strong network of local women entrepreneurs - the Super Sahelis - both of which enabled access to some of the most remote female-led households, to offer them access to climate protection for their crops.
The initiative is supported with funding from the Natural Disaster Fund through its Technical Assistance Facility. The NDF is a disaster risk financing vehicle managed by Global Parametrics and funded by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and by Germany’s development bank KfW on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The NDF shares risks with Hannover Re to provide risk capacity for parametric solutions that foster climate and natural catastrophe resilience for poor and vulnerable communities in low-and-middle-income countries across the Global South.
Notably, the programme has already demonstrated real-world impact, with a parametric payout triggered for 14 locations due to excess moisture in November 2025, which is currently being distributed directly to affected farmers by Frontier Markets - marking the successful launch of a scalable model that can be replicated across additional states as we work together to expand coverage and impact nationwide.
The local insurer for this initiative is Go Digit General Insurance Ltd and the broker Howden India, whose technical capacity and market insight have been instrumental in structuring a robust parametric offering. Additionally, Humanity Insured is providing critical premium subsidy support, enabling affordability and ensuring that even the most vulnerable women farmers can access meaningful climate risk protection.
Frontier Markets’ deep local presence and tireless groundwork have been central to making this initiative possible. Their team and the Saheli network have worked diligently to collect accurate field-level data, verify documentation, and deliver targeted training -building the trust and understanding needed to introduce a first-of-its-kind, women-led protection model.
Frontier Markets continues to transform the lives of rural women across India by connecting households to gender-inclusive, climate-smart solutions across agriculture, e-commerce, finance, Fast-moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), electronics, clean energy, and healthcare, proving how powerful women-led systems can be in driving sustainable, scalable impact.