6th International Microinsurance Conference updated
The 6th International Microinsurance Conference website has been updated with all relevant information and documents. The website is a great source of information and includes a conference overview, a list of participant organisations, the agenda and presentations, and summaries of all the sessions.
For a personal account of the conference please read this blog which identifies four areas of development that was particularly interesting: client value and business case; distribution; bundling insurance with other services and; data.
Click here to view conference website
Social Performance Indicators for Microinsurance report published
 The Performance Indicator Working Group has published a new report with the support of ADA and BRS. This report is based on a workshop with 15 microinsurance practitioners held in October 2010 and is the first attempt to define social performance indicators for microinsurance.
The workshop demonstrated that consensus can be reached amongst a diverse group of practitioners for a set of principles and indicators that can be applied to the wide diversity of microinsurance products and delivery methods.
The set of eight principles sets out the foundation of ‘good practice’ that enables the performance indicators to be calculated.
The set of eleven performance indicators includes five financial indicators, demonstrating not only the link between social and financial performance, but also the feasibility of working towards a single set of key performance indicators in microinsurance that combines the two dimensions.
This report is a draft and the content will evolve through field testing and feedback. Readers are encouraged to send their feedback and to test the principles and indicators within their organisation.
You can also stay informed on the progress of this project by registering here
Microinsurance Conference highlights opportunities in Asia
Reuters, 9 November 2010
Microinsurance offers coverage for people with low incomes, including products such as life insurance, and is branching into areas such as offering farmers polices against extreme weather.
Over 140 million people, mostly in Africa and Asia, are now covered by affordable insurance premiums, and studies showed the potential market is up to 3 billion, the Munich Re Foundation and International Labour Organisation said ahead of a three-day microinsurance conference in Manila.
Craig Churchill, head of the global Microinsurance Network, said more than half of microinsurance products were focused on life and health while less than 10 percent cover farms.
"We're still at the experimental stage in offering products that could cover agriculture," he said, adding there was huge potential growth for such products, citing impacts of typhoons Ketsana and Parma in the northern Philippines in late 2009.
Those typhoons, and Typhoon Megi in October, caused deaths, flooding, landslides, and damage to crops and infrastructure.
Last month, German reinsurer Munich Re said it would launch a reinsurance project in the Philippines to cover co-operative companies against extreme weather events.
That will be the first microinsurance product in the country to offer farmers some protection against perennial typhoon and flooding problems. Another three groups offer non-life products.
Churchill said the Philippines, Indonesia and India offer the biggest market opportunities due to their regulatory frameworks, strong co-operative system and potential risks from extreme weather and disasters such as earthquake and volcanoes.
About 14 percent of the Philippines' 96 million people have insurance, including 2.9 million people covered by microinsurance, mostly as members of co-operatives, Joselito Almario of the Finance Department said.
He said microinsurance had a potential Philippine market of nearly 35 million people willing to pay a premium of 20-30 pesos a week for coverage of up to 120,000 pesos ($2,800) in life and non-life benefits.
"It costs them just a pack of cigarettes a day," said Almario, who is also deputy executive director of the national credit council.
The government has set a maximum daily premium of 20 pesos, 5 percent of the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila, for life and health insurance products offering payouts of up to 200,000 pesos for more than a dozen insurers, including rural banks and co-operatives.
Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by John Mair, Source
Regulation Issues Papers on Mutuals, Cooperatives and Community-based organisations
The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the Microinsurance Network have released a paper entitled Issues in Regulation and Supervision of Mutuals, Cooperatives and Community-based Organisations in Increasing Access to Insurance Markets (MCCOs). This document has been prepared by the IAIS-Microinsurance Network Joint Working Group.
The paper recognises that MCCOs play an important role to improve the effective provision of insurance services in some jurisdictions to groups of the population that would otherwise be underserved or not served at all. This paper is one step forward in advancing discussion on the appropriate and effective regulation and supervision of MCCOs.
Click here to download paper or here for press release
Performance Indicators for Microinsurance version 2 published
The Performance Indicators Working Group of the Microinsurance Network, with the support of ADA and BRS, has published an updated version of the Performance Indicators for Microinsurance handbook. Given the volume of feedback from participants in subsequent workshops and from experts, it became important to publish a second and improved version.
 This version provides more examples, uses better data for illustrating each indicator, categorises the principles and indicators, elaborates on a number of concepts such as asset-liability matching, and has an expanded glossary of terms. Finally, index-based and Takaful insurance are included with some guidance on how the principles and indicators may be adapted for these types of programmes.
Click here to download handbook
6th International Microinsurance Conference
With the growing recognition that providing insurance services for the low-income population plays a significant role in achieving the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MGDs), the 6th International Microinsurance Conference will take place this year in Manila, the Philippines. The conference, which will run between 9 – 11 November 2010, will host around 500 participants to discuss the solutions and challenges microinsurance faces in helping to achieve these goals.
The conference, which is organised by the Munich Re Foundation and the Microinsurance Network with support from GTZ/BMZ, the Department of Finance in the Philippines and Georgia State University’s Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk, will bring together representatives from across the microinsurance sector including insurance and reinsurance companies, international organisations, NGOs, development-aid agencies, academics, policymakers, regulators and supervisors.
Secretary of Finance Cesar V. Purisima is expected to attend the opening of the conference, confirming that microinsurance is of great importance to the government of the Philippines. The Secretary affirmed that, "through a strong public-private sector collaboration, microinsurance will be at the forefront of the Philippine Government’s efforts to provide our low-income sector and the poor protection from risks, providing them the means to rebuild their lives when unfortunate and unforeseen events occur."
Read full press release
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, the <a href='http://www.munichre-foundation.org/StiftungsWebsite/Projects/Microinsurance/2010Microinsurance/default.htm' target='_blank'>6th International Microinsurance Conference</a> will take place this year in Manila, the Philippines. The conference, which will run between 9 – 11 November 2010, will host around 500 participants to discuss the solutions and challenges microinsurance faces in helping to achieve these goals.</p>
<p style='text-align: center;'><img style='vertical-align: baseline;' title='5th International Microinsurance Conference' src='/image/Conference_2009_2.jpg' alt='5th International Microinsurance Conference' width='420' height='103' /></p>
<p>The conference, which is organised by the <a href='http://www.munichre-foundation.org/StiftungsWebsite/' target='_blank'>Munich Re Foundation</a> and the <a href='/index.php?PHPSESSID=3833bf8186122efef29528d536b76e79' target='_blank'>Microinsurance Network</a> with support from GTZ/BMZ, the Department of Finance in the Philippines and Georgia State University’s Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk, will bring together representatives from across the microinsurance sector including insurance and reinsurance companies, international organisations, NGOs, development-aid agencies, academics, policymakers, regulators and supervisors.</p>
<p>Secretary of Finance Cesar V. Purisima is expected to attend the opening of the conference, confirming that microinsurance is of great importance to the government of the Philippines. The Secretary affirmed that, 'through a strong public-private sector collaboration, microinsurance will be at the forefront of the Philippine Government’s efforts to provide our low-income sector and the poor protection from risks, providing them the means to rebuild their lives when unfortunate and unforeseen events occur.'</p>
<p>Read full <a href='/file/MIC2010_PR_PressRelease.pdf?PHPSESSID=3833bf8186122efef29528d536b76e79' target='_blank'>press release</a></p>){kind=link}