Groundbreaking South-North Initiative to Bring Heat Insurance, Direct Cash Support, and Resilience to Heat-Exposed Outdoor Workers of Los Angeles

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 24, 2025

New York and Los Angeles, September 24, 2025 – Today, a groundbreaking “south-north” initiative to bring heat insurance, direct cash support, and resilience to heat-exposed street vendors in Los Angeles was announced by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, the regulator of the world’s fourth largest insurance market, Climate Resilience for All (CRA) and Inclusive Action for the City.  

The partnership will adapt the successful Women’s Climate Shock Insurance and Livelihoods Initiative created by Climate Resilience for All, and first piloted for India’s most vulnerable women workers with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), supporting a quarter million women across seven states in India in collaboration with Swiss Re.

This new collaboration between industry, the public sector, and NGOs builds on an existing collaboration between Inclusive Action for the City and global reinsurer Swiss Re, made possible with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Low-income street vendors in Los Angeles, like hundreds of millions of workers around the world —many of them women — increasingly face extreme heat and bear an unequal burden, risking their health and daily income to make a living in brutal conditions.

At the heart of this initiative is a parametric insurance product, which pays out when a threshold, like temperature, is exceeded, prompting quick disbursements to heat-exposed outdoor workers. This initiative, building on the knowledge and experience gained through the program in India, seeks to provide parametric insurance and cash support, tailored information with early warnings, along with heat-impact reducing actions that allow workers to protect their health and income in the face of rising heat conditions.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, a longtime partner and advocate for Inclusive Action for the City – and of CRA’s, with a personal experience with extreme heat, has joined this “local-state-global” partnership to bring the technical expertise and advocacy of his office, and to support the project’s testing of forecast-based cash assistance, that will inform new approaches to public policy that reduces the impacts of extreme heat.

By expanding this set of heat solutions in Los Angeles, grounded in and designed according to the local experience of street vendors, the initiative further demonstrates how jurisdictions everywhere – global south and north – can tailor, test, adapt, and scale solutions.

This approach enables workers, communities, and governments to act ahead of extreme heat events, offering a proactive alternative to traditional relief systems. Peer reviewed science and recent focus groups with workers tell us that with resources prior to dangerous heat events, workers can prepare, rearrange, adjust inventory, and more – to secure their livelihoods, protect their health, and avoid income losses.

Partner Quotes

“Climate changed has increased our interconnectedness. We must seek innovative solutions beyond our borders to address unprecedented challenges such as extreme heat. Today’s transformative partnership brings a global solution to Los Angeles benefitting one of our cherished cultural symbols, our iconic sidewalk vendors,” said Ricardo Lara, California Insurance Commissioner.

“Extreme heat is already taking lives, threatening incomes, and pushing vulnerable workers deeper into poverty,” said Kathy Baughman McLeod, CEO of Climate Resilience for All (CRA). “A parametric insurance that supports lost income can mean opportunity for those most at risk to climate impacts – and so often that means supporting women. By bringing tested innovation from our work in India to Los Angeles, we can help women workers secure their health, income, and dignity in the face of rising temperatures.”

“In Los Angeles, street vendors are an essential part of our communities, culture and economy, but they are also among the most vulnerable to extreme heat,” said Rudy Espinoza, CEO of Inclusive Action for the City. “This pilot gives us a chance to test how innovative tools like heat insurance can provide income security and build resilience for street vendors who need it most.”

“The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is pleased to be part of the funding support for this pioneering collaboration that aims to bring to market a scalable product. This public-philanthropic collaboration will support the health of economically vulnerable, outdoor workers, and is a case study of how cross sector collaborations can bring forward new ideas and products that siloed efforts alone could not create,” said Kimberlee Cornett, director of Impact Investments at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime.

“When the extreme heat came last summer, many SEWA sisters had to stop work – it was too dangerous. With the heat insurance payouts, they were able to buy food and keep their children in school until they returned to the market. For SEWA members, this support can the difference between surviving the heat or falling into debt. I am proud that our experience in India can help sisters and brothers working on the streets of Los Angeles,” said Anishabanu Bagban, Secretary of SEWA, a home-based garment stitcher by trade, and a grassroots leader from Ahmedabad, India.

“Selling fruit on the streets of Los Angeles means long hours under the hot sun. On the hottest days, I worry about my health and about how I will earn enough if I can’t work. Knowing that a program like this could help me and other vendors prepare before the heat gets dangerous gives me hope. It means someone sees us and values the work we do,” said Keren, outdoor fruit seller and client of Inclusive Action for the City, Los Angeles.

“This collaboration is a powerful example of knowledge moving from South to North,” said Reema Nanavaty, Director of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India. “For decades, SEWA has worked to protect women workers on the frontlines of climate change. To see these solutions adapted in Los Angeles is proof that community-driven innovations can travel the world and inspire global resilience.”

“Swiss Re Public Sector Solutions is proud to partner with Climate Resilience for All in its efforts to support the health and income of heat-exposed women workers around the world,” said Jackie Higgins, Head of Public Sector Solutions North America, Swiss Re. “Bringing this experience to Los Angeles underscores the importance of applying successful Global South solutions to challenges here in the US. This initiative highlights the growing need for innovative risk solutions that protect marginalized communities everywhere from the rising threat of extreme heat.”

About the Partners

California Department of Insurance regulates the largest insurance market in the United States and the fourth largest in the world.
Climate Resilience for All (CRA) is a global nonprofit building the health and wealth of women on the frontlines of extreme heat.
Inclusive Action for the City is a Los Angeles–based nonprofit advancing community resilience and economic justice for low-income entrepreneurs and street vendors.