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The following videos have been produced during the International Microinsurance Conference 2008 in Cartagena, Colombia and 2009 in Dakar, Senegal.
Extending microinsurance
 Accessing rural clients through a strategic alliance
Auri Carrasco Elespuru - La Positiva, Peru
This interview focuses on the important role that distribution channels play in a successful microinsurance project. It also highlights the strengths of partnering with La Junta de Riego, an organization that can deliver insurance products directly to farmers in remote areas in Peru. A strategic alliance between a commercial insurer and a civil society organisation enables better efficiency to manage premium collection and product delivery but also leads to sustainability and profitability.
 Challenges and opportunities for microinsurance in Mexico
Isabel Cruz - Amucss, Mexico
Isabel Cruz presents an interesting example of a microinsurance product targeting migrants and their families, to help them cope with repatriation from the USA when a death occurs and what cultural challenges Amucss had to face to deliver such a product. She also insists on proximity (cultural, physical, and linguistic) as an important factor to ensure the success of microinsurance. It is not enough to deliver products and pay claims. Insurance providers also have the responsibility to make insurance understandable and develop trust amongst their clients.
- Video interview with Ms Isabel
Cruz (in Spanish) - (51,8 MB 11:42 min) -
"You have to take into consideration that people don't have experience with formal insurance mechanisMs
The point is not only to sell insurance and collect a premium, but to explain how microinsurance works,
translate a financial concept into simple things that people can understand." - Isabel Cruz, Director
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 Delivering insurance through community champions
Noel Guzman - Pioneer
Pioneer in the Philippines offers life insurance bundled to a saving product. It partners with the local parishes to reach migrants´ workers and their families. The insurer is working through ‘financial wellness facilitators´ to collect and renew premiums, settle claims and spread financial literacy to change risk management behavior within the target market.
- Video interview with Mr Noel Guzman (in English) -
(20 MB 4:34 min) -
"For us to be able to reach the market in a faster and a wider scope, we partner with the diocese, with the school coordinator and parish coordinator and identify who are the potential facilitators. We´re going to build a community of financial wellness facilitators to be able to do what we´re doing. So even if we´re not in the area, the project is still moving because we have financial wellness facilitators to organize the migrants´ workers and their families." - Noel Guzman – Pioneer
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 Empowering the delivering channel to reach out clients
Lourdes Del Carpio - La Positiva, Peru
A year ago La Positiva launched a pilot composite product for low income farmers in rural areas of Peru. Lourdes del Carpio presents some of the lessons learnt during the pilot and how the insurer adapted its offer to better serve the market. It proved to be difficult to mobilize farmers without the firm commitment of the delivery channel, enabling it as a key decision maker in the outreach process. Information management is another issue that constrained the management of the product though technology should, in the near, future improve the efficiency of the scheme and increase its outreach.
 Microinsurance, an untapped source of social
and economic development in Africa
Michal Matul - ILO
Africa presents both great challenges and great opportunities for microinsurance. The Microinsurance Innovation Facility's Research Officer, Michal Matul, presents the results of a recent study that reveals the current landscape of microinsurance in Africa. The study, conducted by the Facility and the Microinsurance Centre, focusses on the gaps, challenges and opportunities for microinsurance on the continent. There are over 14 million low-income people in Africa who were covered by microinsurance at the end of 2008, almost double where this figure stood in 2004. But, even with such growth, substantial parts of the continent remain almost barren of microinsurance, representing a huge potential market for insurers. Michal discusses the challenges that must be overcome in order to facilitate broader, high-quality expansion in the years to come.
 Expanding microinsurance to the masses
Michael McCord - MicroInsurance Centre
The MicroInsurance Centre works to provide insurance to low income people through creating partnerships between regulated insurers and appropriate delivery channels. The Centre's President, and microinsurance expert, Michael McCord, talks about the key challenge for upscaling microinsurance - the delivery channels. As he argues, what matters most is still to convince MFIs of the benefits that microinsurance can bring to both their organisation and their clients.
 Innovations in microinsurance in India
Rupalee Ruchismita - CIRM, India
Increasing products' outreach doesn't necessarily mean providing cheap policies. Price is not the main limitation and accessibility and portability are more important features for achieving widespread outreach. Another aspect to improve the interest of potential consumers is the "bundling of solutions" which tackle expenditure smoothing (such as savings associated to microinsurance). Rupalee Ruchismita explains how she sees the role that data (and connecting data sets) can play to manage better schemes. She also gives a good insight of how technology can support cattle insurance.
- Video interview with Ms Rupalee Ruchismita -
(34,8 MB 7:51 min) -
"A few important product features inhibit greater uptake of microinsurance. 'Affordable' products that pass
substantial intangible costs to the community end up experiencing lower demand. Accessibility and trust matter
most when households choose a cover." - Rupalee Ruchismita
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 Partnering with Microfinance institutions
Luis Huerta Rosas - Seguros Argos, Mexico
This insurer uses three main channels to reach new clients: MFIs (and in one year already 300 000 clients got insured), training sales agents working amongst low income populations and retailers, such as food stores. The market has huge potential, however success depends on the capacity to manage high volumes and accepting that one must learn through failure.
 Understanding the market preferences in South Africa
Colette Patience - Old Mutual
Colette Patience from Old Mutual highlights why the insurer decided to invest in the low income segment and how the company figures its business model through a two-pronged strategy targeting both the individuals and the community. Understanding the low income market and designing a high value product suitable for a target population segmented by age, gender, and income disparity remains the main challenge.
- Video interview with Ms Colette Patience (in English) -
(17 MB 3:52 min) -
"We see the low income market as the next growth point. If we´re able to access customers at that level and keep them for life, we believe that is what Old Mutual should be doing from a commercial perspective and for the transformation agenda for the country … Old Mutual hopes to reach a million customers by 2020 … if we can untap this market and get into it now, we believe that is where our future lies, we want to do this from a commercially sustainable perspective and not from a corporate social responsibility perspective."
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 Financial Innovation in Bolivia
Nathalie Wyser - Fundación Profin
The Profin Foundation, born out of the Swiss Cooperation Program, has been an independent Bolivian foundation since 2008 working on development of the agricultural and business sectors, focusing on financial innovation. Nathalie Wyser explains how Profin improves smallholder access to financial services through its innovative crop-life insurance product whilst reducing poverty and increasing productivity in rural Bolivia.
Creating business models
 Brokering for more efficiency
Alex Bernhardt - Guy Carpenter
Though the microinsurance market has a tremendous potential, Alex Bernhardt from Guy Carpenter notes that microreinsurance does not yet play an efficient role toward the enhancement of the microinsurance market place. He explains the role Guy Carpenter intends to play as a facilitator of microinsurance growth and expansion by bridging some of the gaps (intellectual, technical and financial capacity) between the reinsurance and microinsurance markets through the application of its global network of colleagues and contacts.
- Video interview with Mr Alex Bernhardt (in English) -
(17 MB 3:45 min) -
"The global poor population has collective spending power of about $5 trillion and the existing financial system doesn´t reach them at all. The poor have proven to be viable economic citizens, so long as you can tailor products to suit their needs. It will only be a matter of time before this becomes a viable and sustainable commercial market." - Alex Bernhardt - Guy Carpenter
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 Diversifying our business and serving the poor
Bipin Bhagwan - The Hollard Insurance group, South Africa
Discover The Hollard Insurance group, a South African based company, committed to serving low income populations and understand why, despite low margins, the sector offers successful business opportunities together with positive change in the clients' livelihoods.
- Video interview with Mr Bipin Bhagwan -
(29,1 MB 6:36 min) -
"Traditionally we would send a very skilled highly paid loss assessor out to somebody's house to find out
what the cost of the claim was. Now we're looking at sending out low-skilled individuals with very sophisticated
mobile devices and they can send back information to Hollard. That is a way to reduce the cost." - Bipin Bhagwan
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 Emerging lessons for the industry, making microinsurance a sustainable activity
Thabo Gumbi - Hollard Insurance
Hollard Insurance, a family-owned group, is the South Africa´s largest private insurance company. It implements and delivers, through an Innovation grant, a voluntary short-term insurance such as home and assets insurance, which is still virtually unavailable to low-income households in developing countries. Thabo Gumbi presents some of the lessons that emerged during the first year of implementation. The first result is that it took longer than planned to put all the pieces of the project together and that partnership is a key aspect of any microinsurance project. Administrating claims is another important issue; to manage the product correctly and increase its outreach though it might sometimes be tricky to assess assets in slum areas. Eventually Hollard invested in call centers to facilitate sales but also to provide valuable feedback on the product´s design.
 Enhancing social protection through public-private partnership
Charles Mutua -
SCC, Kenya
SCC offers simple financial services. Microinsurance came as an opportunity to diversify. This interview highlights the synergy of expertise-which the public/private partnership brings in- that should help extend social protection to households that would otherwise not have access to that type of service. He states the advantage of collaborating with the cooperative sector in terms of rural outreach, benefiting from the high loyalty of members and facilitating the uptake of the product.
 Getting the insurance industry on board
Brandon Mathews - Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich sees microinsurance as a huge market which can only be served through innovation. The activity should not be seen only as a commitment to society. Paying attention to the right balance between corporate responsibility and business venture, in order to get the industry leaders buy in to microinsurance in the long term, is essential.
- Video interview with Mr Brandon Mathews -
(23,6 MB 5:22 min) -
"[Microinsurance] is a profitable market and we would love to invite as many people as possible to try
to make this market as competitive as possible. Honestly, there can't be enough competition.Competition is
going to be what is important to forming a real market at the bottom of the pyramid." - Brandon Mathews
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 Microinsurance, a clever bet to prepare tomorrow's customers base
Antonio Cassio dos Santos - MAPFRE Brasil, Brazil
Microinsurance has been implemented for 20 years by a variety of actors in Brazil. The sector started with serving construction workers through a product called PASI (serving 2 million people for a monthly premium of 1 to 2$). Different types of products are successful such as funeral (reaching 15 million people), unemployment, and agricultural insurance products. Retailers are an important element of the distribution process. It is a question of trust as they "speak the same language as the clients they serve". Food stores, cell phone kiosks, and clothes shops can also serve large volumes of clients. Brazil is kind of an unique market - according Cassio dos Santos in that every year, 4 million low income people join the lower middle class. It would be commercial suicide not to build loyalty amongst low income clients right from now.
 Profitable business model in rural India
Sameer Kwatra - ICICI Prudential, India
The main challenges to starting a rural microinsurance scheme in India are the difficulty to reach a cost effective model, the low level of financial literacy amongst the clients and the lack of informationfor understanding the income patterns and risk protection needs of the clients. Watch the interview to understand how ICICI Prudential overcame these difficulties and implemented a profitable business.
Building administrative efficiency
 Providing back office support to the industry
Richard Leftley - Micro-Ensure
This interview gives you a clear idea of what Micro-Ensure is, what it tries to achieve and where it works. Richard Leftley explains how Micro-Ensure intends to provide back offices services, and a range of market enablers (such as product design or consumer education). He also highlights a new niche: index insurance.
 Reducing fraud through technology
K.Gopinath - Iffco Tokio
Livestock insurance in India, until recently, was not widely offered as the potential for fraud constrained the sector. External tags were used to identify insured animals but could easily be removed and placed on the first animal that would die in the community´s herd. Nowadays, IFFCO Tokio uses a radio frequency identification chip (RFID) to identify the insured animals. The technology benefited both the insurer, as fraud was drastically reduced, and also the cooperatives. Indeed, the chip can store useful information on the breed, age and vaccinations of the animal and improve the efficiency of cattle management. Additionally, as fraud was reduced, the premium could also decrease.
 Technology, outreach and efficiency
Soumaila Sorgho - UAB, Burkina Faso
Mr Sorgho describes the product Cauri d'or that UAB will roll out in Burkina Faso and the reason why the insurer became interested in this market. He explains how UAB expects to include a technological component to increase outreach and improve efficiency of product management and he highlights the need - for the commercial sector - to serve the informal economy (80% of the population of Burkina Faso) in order not to marginalize the majority in developing countries.
Promoting health microinsurance
 Health microinsurance - an overview
Denis Garand - Denis Garand & Associates, Canada
Health microinsurance is challenging and starting a new scheme might be in some cases overwhelming. Denis Grand presents the importance of getting a good overview of the situation (health issues, providers, distribution systems…) and the difficulties a provider would have to overcome (fraud, trust building with the clients, limited budget…) before starting any scheme.
 Improving health microinsurance cost effectiveness
Dr Gerry Noble -
Microcare, Uganda
Working with pre-existing groups (over 25 families) to avoid adverse selection, and getting key leaders of a community to buy in to the concept and influence the rest of the group contributed to the success of health microinsurance in Uganda. Costs reduction was also important, however efficiency was not planned at the expense of disposable income of the clients; partnering with pharmaceutical companies and health care providers was Microcare's solution.
- Video interview with Dr Gerry Noble -
(47,7 MB 10:46 min) -
"If you're dealing with community organization, you need to get the key leaders - the opinion leaders
- on board; if they do not understand what you're doing, if they do not buy in to the concept, they won't be
in a position to sell the idea to the other members. It is only when they buy in that you can move ahead."
- Dr Gerry Noble
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Strengthening policy and regulation
 Enabling the sector, a stepping stone for FANAF
Papa Ndiaga Boye - FANAF
Insurance only covers 20% of the African population hence a need for the Federation of African Insurers (FANAF) to promote microinsurance within the industry but also amongst policy makers in order to develop a legal and fiscal framework enabling the success of the insurance business.
 Improving the regulation of microinsurance
Arup Chatterjee - IAIS, Switzerland
The interview highlights the regulatory obstacles to the expansion of insurance for the poor - mainly a lack of understanding amongst regulators who tend not to have a clear definition for microinsurance (they often consider it as a non market led mechanism to manage risks). He also describes how regulatory bodies can create an enabling environment that will benefit the whole industry.
 Microinsurance, a win-win situation for Africa
Prisca Soares - African Insurance Organization
The African Insurance Organization is convinced that microinsurance is a win-win situation. It will open up the traditional market of insurance and provide coverage for the 80% of the population that doesn´t benefit yet from any products and can be a source or profitable business for the risk carriers.
- Video interview with Ms Prisca Soares (in English) -
(15 MB 3:26 min) -
"The penetration of insurance is very low in African and I believe Microinsurance can take insurance closer to the people. Microinsurance, if we can get it right, is a win-win situation. It means insurers are doing more business and they can become more profitable. For the low income people, I believe it will empower them, people can live healthier lives and when healthier they are able to invest in some form of business and that way gradually impact on each country that is involved, and ultimately the continent."
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 The potential of microinsurance as a risk management tool for the poor
Priya Jaisinghani - formerly at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Microcredit has enabled millions of poor people to manage their lives better. Microinsurance builds on this success, and offers another vital tool that will allow the poor to protect themselves from risk. Former Programme Officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Priya Jaisinghani, discusses the need for research and innovation within the field.
Developing consumer education approaches
 Microinsurance Consumer Education
Aparna Dalal - FAI
In partnership with Bajaj-Allianz, CARE India has introduced an insurance education program to first time insurance users in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Aparna Dalal, one of the authors of a case study on Care's consumer education experience - (pdf 417 KB), presents key challenges-such as sustainability and performance measurement of the education programme-and how Care tried to overcome them.
 Increasing insurance literacy through a multimedia campaign
Alejandra Diaz - Fundaseg
Alejandra Diaz from Fundaseg explains why the Colombian insurance association intends to diversify its financial literacy program targeting low income people - moving from class-based training to radio programs - and analyses the cost efficiency ratio of each media. She discusses the methodology Fundaseg will use and the learnings the association intends to gather.
 Promoting the value proposition of insurance education
Dr Iddo Dror - Microinsurance Network´s working group on consumer education
Dr Iddo Dror who leads the Microinsurance Network working group on consumer education explains how the group started and how it intends to enhance access to insurance education. Despite the fact there is increased awareness that insurance education plays a key role in the success or failure of microinsurance programs, there is not much information about materials available. Hence the working group plans to map out the insurance literacy efforts and share the results of this exercise within the insurance community.
- Video interview with Dr Iddo Dror (in English) -
(21 MB 4:37 min) -
"We see that most of the organizations are active at a very basic level. What we see relatively little of is more complex tools, games, videos, things that go beyond the obvious ‘what is insurance´ and tackle the most complex issues, the most complex risks such as health, agriculture and so on and not just getting across simple messages on simple products but taking complex products and giving simple messages that would inform the clients on their options."
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Impact and client value
 Finding the real value of microinsurance
Stephan Dercon - EUDN, Oxford University
We don't know much about the impact of microinsurance and how it changes low income people's lives. It is difficult to study and requires some time to assess the extent to which it can improve poor people's welfare. Stefan Dercon (EUDN - Oxford University) explains how research provides an understanding of the real value of microinsurance for low income clients.
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