The ILO and IFC launch a third year-long Community of Practice among insurers to reduce the protection gap for women

GENEVA (ILO News) – The ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility and the IFC Women’s Insurance Programme have launched the third cohort of the year-long IFC-ILO Women’s Insurance Community of Practice – #In4Women – to raise awareness about the insurance needs of women, and to highlight the market opportunity for insurers if they target women as customers and employees. Following the success of the first two cohorts of the Community of Practice, the partnership continues to impart best practices on how to increase access to insurance for women, allowing for learning and knowledge sharing within the cohort, and with external experts through a series of bespoke webinars and related events. To date, 86 individual participants from 39 companies and 26 countries have already benefitted from being part of the programme. The current cohort of the Community of Practice consists of representatives from 17 organisations in 12 countries.

Closing the gaps in economic participation of women and men drives the growth of businesses and economies and improves the lives of families and communities. While women around the globe have rising incomes and increased buying power, they remain an underserved community across financial services.

Fatou Giwa, Global programme lead, IFC Women’s Insurance programme said: “At IFC, we are focused on ‘creating markets’ that are competitive, sustainable, inclusive, and resilient. The insurance sector is critical to this effort but cannot perform to its full potential without actively targeting women as customers and distribution force. We look forward to leveraging this CoP platform and the partnership with ILO to further build awareness around the women’s insurance market opportunity among insurance stakeholders and support them to better serve women as customers and employees.”

Craig Churchill, Chief of Social Finance Programme, ILO said: “We are delighted to continue working with IFC on this important project. We look forward to realizing the power of the Communities of Practice; as a group, participants can go further and faster than individual companies might on their own.”

According to IFC’s SheforShield report, if the insurance industry were to target women as customers, they can earn up to US$1.7 trillion by 2030—half of it in emerging economies.

The ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility
The ILO’s Social Finance Programme works with the financial sector to enable it to contribute to the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda. In this context, we engage with banks, microfinance institutions, credit unions, insurers, investors and others to test new financial products, approaches and processes. The Impact Insurance Facility contributes to the Social Finance agenda by collaborating with the insurance industry, governments and partners to realize the potential of insurance for social and economic development. A key priority is ensuring the financial inclusion of women, thereby closing the gender protection gap.

IFC Women’s Insurance Programme
The IFC Women’s Insurance Programme works alongside the private sector to create women’s insurance markets, particularly in the most challenging places. We help develop innovative solutions to address the risk mitigation and financial protection needs of women at every stage of their life. IFC works closely with its clients to increase their customer base and revenue from women, thereby supporting women’s access to insurance and boosting their employment opportunities as agents and distributors.

Contacts

• ILO: Lisa Morgan - [email protected]
• IFC: Katherine Baez - [email protected]