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The following videos have been produced during the Microinsurance annual conference 2008 in Cartagena, Colombia. The speakers include the Facility's grantees and some key actors of the microinsurance sector. (Note)
 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 |
 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 |
 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.
 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.
 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 |
 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.
 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 |
 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.
 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.
- Video interview with
Mr Luis Huerta Rosas (in Spanish) - (27,6 MB 6:16 min) -
"There is an enormous potential for creativity and a huge space for innovation, but it is important
to understand that microinsurance is a totally different business in all its dimensions, from the perspective
of delivering, skills, underwriting, claim payment, policy issuance and premium collection." - Luis Huerta Rosas |
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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 |
 Technology, outreach and efficiency
Soumaila Sorgho, UAB, Burkina Faso
M. 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.
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Innovation grant projects
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