News

August 2009

• Edutainment videos on microinsurance for client and staff training
  Insurance for You follows the story of microcredit client Rangamma, whose husband lies ill with cholera. Like many poor families they cannot afford the expensive hospital fees. However, Rangamma is lucky; her micro-lender offers microinsurance. Next time a family member needs medical treatment she needs only to show her insurance membership card, thanks to the small monthly premiums she has paid. With recognizable characters and problems, two videos - produced by CIRM - exemplify how the concept of insurance can be introduced to low income communities, and can be used to inspire and provide guidelines for staff working in the field, or to sensitize the clients themselves. The videos are presented in Kannada, one of the major Dravidian languages of India, with subtitles in English (part 2 is available here). Also available is a client targeted animation film, which helps to explain the role of insurance in a fun and engaging format (the video is in Hindi without subtitles).
• Innovation grantee, AIC, given Pioneer of Prosperity award
  The Alternative Insurance Company, who received an Innovation grant from the Microinsurance Innovation Facility, has been announced as winner of the Pioneer of Prosperity award. AIC used their innovation grant to launch a funeral insurance product on a mass scale in Haiti, working in conjunction with MFIs, the National Bank, and a network of funeral homes. The Pioneer of Prosprerity award is given to companies in emerging markets that have been identified as ‘enterprise role models for aspiring business leaders in their region’.

July 2009

• Safety Nets for All - New blog on microinsurance
  India`s Centre for Insurance and Risk Management (CIRM) has launched a blog which highlights interesting initiatives, challenges and pitfalls for the microinsurance sector in India and the wider world. Members of the microinsurance community are also invited to contribute their comments. The latest entries feature agriculture insurance in India, the use of satellite imagery to predict production yields, and innovations in health microinsurance. Do contribute and share your comments to help the sector grow!
• Global Survey on Insurance Education
  The working group on Insurance education of the Microinsurance network, in collaboration with the Microinsurance Innovation Facility of the ILO, has prepared a survey on Insurance Education. The aim is to facilitate access to knowledge on insurance education initiatives, and to help promote providers of services in this (largely under-served) area. The responses should enable the creation of a "virtual library" with information on insurance education experiences through which organizations which would like to conduct insurance education programs can choose effective tools, methodologies, or contact a professional for advice. You can help! By filling out this 10-minute survey, you will be helping us carry out this important activity. Click here to access the survey.
• Health microinsurance schemes and claims models
  The Microinsurance Innovation Facility, STEP and the Microinsurance Network have launched a survey to identify the current claims models in health microinsurance schemes. Check the preliminary results gathered by Pascale Leroy who is leading the analysis.

May 2009

• Podcast on Microinsurance
  ACCION International Principle Director, Monica Brand, interviewed Craig Churchill and discussed recent innovations being made in terms of microinsurance products, delivery channels, and supply gaps, as well as the challenges facing the advancement of the sector.
• Fellowship available in Pakistan
  The First Microinsurance Agency (FMiA) is seeking to host a fellow in Karachi, Pakistan. FMiA provides innovative life and health microinsurance products that are carefully tailored to the needs of poor families.The fellow's mission is to help implement an IT system that shall support FMiA's core processes handling data flows between local insurers, local distributors and other partners, in particular providers of health care services. These core processes are aimed at facilitating the generation and administration of FMiA's business, minimize the effort required by the insurers and distributors, and support paperless transactions to the extent possible.
• Making insurance markets work for the poor: Policy, regulation and supervision
  This new publication, prepared by Cenfri members, presents the synthesis findings from of a five-country (Colombia, India, Philippines, South Africa and Uganda) case study on the role of regulation in the development of microinsurance markets.

April 2009

• Survey on health microinsurance schemes: help us to gather information
  The Facility, STEP and the Microinsurance Network´s working group on health insurance wish to learn more about current claims models in health microinsurance (HMI) schemes in Asia, Africa and Latin America. If you are affiliated with a HMI scheme, we invite you to participate in an international survey. Please access the survey and fill it in by May 6, 2009. This survey seeks general information on the HMI scheme with 14 simple questions and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. We thank you in advance for your valuable contribution to this important study that we hope will be helpful to practitioners in developing countries.
• The Facility is looking for two new grant officers
  The Microinsurance Innovation Facility is expanding! Check the Job opportunities section and send us your application by 4th May 2009.

February 2009

• Training programme on microinsurance
  CIRM, in collaboration with the Wharton School, is offering a training programme on microinsurance. The content focuses on general insurance contract design and pricing, with an emphasis on health, agriculture, catastrophe and livestock insurance. The course involves five days of classroom sessions with international experts, and two days of field exposure. The course combines insurance theory with case studies to illustrate the intricacies of microinsurance underwriting and pricing.
• Join the fellowship programme
  To nurture a new generation of TA providers and assist insurance professionals in expanding their expertise, the Facility developed a fellowship programme. Fellowships enable professionals to gain in-depth experience in microinsurance by working onsite for 6-12 months under the guidance of a mentor. We are currently looking to fill a research fellowship position in India and we received requests from China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mexico and Burkina Faso.
• The Facility newsletter is available
  In this issue, you'll find information on our activities - innovation grants, technical assistance and research - as well as news on the sector, publications and jobs opportunities. The next issue will be released in May. Stay tuned!

October 2008

• New staff join the Facility
  In October, two new staff members joined the Facility to contribute to the expansion of our activities. Caroline Phily, an actuary who also has a degree in Development Studies, worked for a couple of years in the microinsurance sector in Cambodia where she assisted the Sky Health Insurance Program implemented by GRET.
  Jose Navarro is also an actuary and has an advanced degree in Financial Risk Management. He has an extensive experience in life and health insurance and finance projects, has worked for Swiss Reinsurance, Munich Re and Allianz. Jose will be the Facility's focal point for Latin America. To get more details, check the details of their bios.
• Technical assistance Grants
  Microinsurers are often in need of valuable expertise to launch a new scheme or improve their products. The Facility offers Technical assistance grants to help launch or improve products, upgrade operations, meet legal requirements or obtain reinsurance, conduct market research or price products. The TA grant covers the cost of the expertise required to perform these tasks through short-term assignments.
• The Facility releases its research strategy
  In a nutshell, we will strive through a variety of mechanisms (action research with the Innovation grantees, impact and thematic studies, grant to Southern academics…) to understand under which circumstances Microinsurance schemes work, how they can contribute to reduce low income workers vulnerability and how they can become a profitable activity. Download the research strategy - (pdf 631 KB).
• Better interaction to promote microinsurance in India
  CIRM, one of our Innovation grantees, co-organised recently a one day Microinsurance round table on regulation, technology and trends in India called Indian Microinsurance – What works? The goal of the meeting was to promote interaction between key microfinance stakeholders (policy makers, Microinsurance providers/intermediaries and technology enablers). Three main themes have been discussed (the role of Technology in Microinsurance to increase efficiency and outreach, the role of policy makers in creating an enabling environment and the current trends and products).

September 2008

• Online course on Innovative Market-based Risk Management Framework
  This course lays out a conceptual basis for innovative schemes designed to manage risks associated with rural poor in low income countries. It introduces participants to a market-based risk management approach for correlated risks affecting the agricultural sector such as weather risk and commodity price risk.
• Sharing information with the mutual and cooperative sector
  Mary Yang, the Facility's technical expertise officer just attended the ICMIF the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) Development Workshop, a great forum for exchanging ideas, experiences.
• The Facility visits projects India
  Jeanna Holtz, the Facility Sr. Grant Officer, visited India for 2 weeks and met not only our three Round 1 grantees located in the region (ICICI Prudential and Centre for Insurance and Risk Management CIRM) but also several organizations active in the microinsurance sector.

August 2008

• Microinsurance Conference 2008
  From 5 to 7 November 2008, the Microinsurance Conference 2008 will take place in Cartagena, Colombia.
• TA experts
  A priority for the ILO's Facility is to increase the supply and quality of technical assistance (TA) by identifying existing TA experts and nurturing the development of new ones through training, fellowships and mentoring.
• Research Partner
  The Facility launches a partnership with European Development Research Network (EUDN) to collaborate on research in order to better understand how insurance can help reduce vulnerability among the low income households in developing countries.