Hurricane-resistant Home Improvement in the OECS

Making low-income housing in the OECS safer and environmentally sustainable
through property insurance and home retrofit programs.

Terms of Reference for Review of the Group Insurance Mechanism for Low-income Housing

Background

Under the USAID/OAS Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project, the OAS assisted the National Research and Development Foundation of St. Lucia (NRDF) in launching a Hurricane Resistant Home Improvement Program (HRHIP). This program has been operational for nearly 7 years. Recently, the OAS has been able to generate an interest on the part of the World Bank World in this program, and in exploring the potential for its replication in other territories of the Eastern Caribbean. In response, a short-term project was prepared by the OAS and approved by the World Bank.

 The proposed project aims to review the lessons learned from the St. Lucia HRHIP program and to build capacity in the OECS to improve on and replicate the linkage of property insurance with home retrofit programs for low-income homeowners. It will also introduce an environmental management dimension to the existing program. There will be four main activities under this project: 1) strengthening of the safer housing and insurance program for low-income homeowners in St. Lucia; 2) development of siting criteria designed to minimize the impact of the housing on the environment and to minimize the effects of prevalent hazards on the housing; 3) development of a blueprint for successful safer and environmentally sustainable housing retrofit and insurance programs for use in the region, based on the St. Lucia program and on an assessment of existing safer housing programs and insurance schemes for low-income housing in the region; and 4) a sub-regional workshop to present the draft blueprint and to identify opportunities for replication of this program within the region.

Purpose

The purpose of this consultancy is to assist the NRDF in re-establishing a group homeowners insurance arrangement with one or more St. Lucia based insurance broker(s) or agency(ies). In particular, the Consultant will:

1. Prepare a brief write-up of the conditions under which such arrangement was established in the past, when and how it lapsed, roles of NRDF staff in the implementation of the arrangement, and rate structure.
2. Prepare the necessary information and documentation that will be used to solicit proposals from one or more insurers and/or brokers registered in St. Lucia to transact such business, and interested in offering group homeowner insurance to participants in the HRHIP. In addition, provide information as to which Material Damage insurers, and which insurance brokers, are represented in each of the member countries of the OECS.
3. Advise NRDF on selecting the best proposal in terms of coverage of risk, and value for cover provided, for the participants and for NRDF, and in terms of affordability for the participants.
4. Formulate the procedures for effective implementation of the insurance program.
5. Prepare a generic write-up of a group homeowners insurance program linked to a HRHIP that can be used to guide development foundations in other OECS countries in replicating the NRDF experience.

Last Updated 13 March 2003