Planet Labs PBC announced a contract extension with ZEP-RE. The extension follows a successful first year of collaboration leveraging Planet's insurance solutions to enhance drought risk protection in the Horn of Africa (HOA) and paves the way for continued collaboration for a 5-year project ending in October 2027. ZEP-RE uses Planet solutions to expand its insurance program and is currently supporting over 2 million pastoralists affected by drought in the HOA.

This is through a drought index that has been customized by location to determine payout amounts, premium rates, and enable direct claims payment to the pastoralists. By year five, the program aimed to reach 1.6 million pastoralists; it achieved this milestone in year two. ZEP-RE uses planet satellite data and reporting to measure vegetation health for an area more than 1,000,000 km2 in the Horn of Africa.

ZEP-RE then uses this data to quantify conditions, provide objective measurements of drought, and fast payouts to impacted pastoralists in case of a drought situation. ZEP-RE and Planet's partnership began in October 2022 as part of the DRIVE program, intending to enhance pastoralists' access to financial services for drought risk mitigation, include them in the value chains, and facilitate the livestock trade. Since then, ZEP-RE has leveraged Planet satellite data to execute the risk protection product to support business continuity and expand its critical work in the region.

DRIVE is a World Bank funded project in partnership with the governments of the four participating countries in the HOA; Djibouti, Africa, and Kenya.