ICMIF's Prosper N°9
The 9th issue of Prosper, ICMIF's microinsurance magazine, provides an insight into some of the activities that are happening around the world that create and strengthen new cooperative and mutual insurance activities.
The mutual and cooperative insurance sector has a history of finding innovative ways to address members' needs and examples of this can be found in this issue of Prosper from repatriation and remittance insurance by Seguros Futuro of El Salvador, CIC Kenya utilising mobile money transfer platforms to facilitate affordable premium payments and CLIMBS 'Weather Protect' product enabling rehabilitation for cooperative members in the Philippines following extreme weather events.
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What We Know About the Financial Value of Microinsurance for Poor Clients: A Snapshot
The Microinsurance Learning and Knowledge's (MILK) work to understand client value in microinsurance focuses on two questions:
- Does microinsurance help protect people from large shocks (high cost events) in comparison to other alternatives?
- To what extent is microinsurance effective in smoothing income or protecting assets of the poor when smaller shocks (low cost events) occur?
As is illustrated in MILK's client value landscape paper, few existing studies have honed in on these two simple, yet nuanced questions.
This brief offers a summary of findings evidenced in the existing research that are relevant to MILK’s two main research questions. While the research is suggestive of financial value in microinsurance, we have few concrete answers. There are simply not enough existing studies, particularly of products other than health insurance, and those that are available often overlook considerations that offer a fuller understanding of the value of microinsurance.
One of MILK’s objectives is to influence and encourage new studies in microinsurance that are targeted toward this broader understanding. This brief aims to provide guidance for researchers, stakeholders and practitioners in framing research questions and to encourage new studies that build a more complete understanding of the added value of microinsurance as a financial risk management tool for the poor.
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Fraud in health insurance
Dofèrègouô; Soro, Editions Universitaires Europeennes, May 2011
Fraud remains a major cause of the deficit portfolio in health insurance. The means to identify and eradicate fraud remains a perpetual debate. This book, which is only available in French, attempts to identify ways in which the problem of fraud identification and treatment can be addressed. The book can be put into the context of microinsurance, especially with regard to aspects of fraud in health microinsurance.
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Funeral insurance
Hougaard, Christine; Doubell Chamberlain, Microinsurance Paper n°10, ILO, July 2011
Funeral insurance is essentially a term life insurance policy where the benefit is used towards funeral expenses. The benefit can be in the form of a funeral service, a cash benefit that could be used towards a funeral, or a combination of the two. Outside of credit life insurance, funeral insurance is the most prevalent form of microinsurance in a number of countries. Insurers are starting to improve client value by adding elements that go beyond pure funeral insurance.
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Process Mapping in Microinsurance – A Technique for Increasing Client Value
Steinmann, Roland, MicroInsurance Centre, LLC, March 2011
This publication, which is part of the IFAD project “Facilitating Widespread Access to Microinsurance Services” and is implemented by the Microinsurance Centre, is a toolkit for designing, understanding and improving business processes based on process mapping.
Process Mapping is a simple but valuable tool to improve and streamline existing business processes or design and communicate new ones. It is a way to visualise core processes and their attributes, such as sequence, duration, cost, and responsibilities, of an organisation using symbols and arrows.
Process maps usually show more clearly than written procedures how business is conducted, where value is added to a product and where not, and where inefficiencies might occur. Though process mapping originated in industrial production, there are many benefits in using this technique also for the service sector.
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MIPSS Microinsurance Newsletter N°4
The fourth issue of the newsletter, produced by the Microinsurance Innovation program for Social Security (GIZ-MIPSS), brings together a series of articles on the microinsurance sector in the Philippines and surrounding area. Included in this issue are articles on:
- The Philippine roadmap to financial literacy on microinsurance;
- A microinsurance conference in Butuan;
- A social health insurance workshop;
- A survey on the benefits and risks of microinsurance;
- Combating climate change through microinsurance.
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The Role of Microfinance and Micro Insurance in Disaster Management
Research Brief 2, Advanced Centre for Enabling Disaster Risk Reduction (ACEDRR) & Dhan Foundation, 2011
This paper studies ways in which microfinance and microinsurance provide social security to disaster-prone areas in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. It also examines how microfinance and microinsurance institutions contribute to disaster management.
The paper also compares indigenous methods of disaster management and social security mechanisms with the reach and relevance of microinsurance products. It analyses opportunities for microfinance to integrate with microinsurance, and examines the role of NGOs, insurance sector, government and donors in developing microinsurance partnerships.
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The Challenge of Supervision in Microinsurance
Hänsel; Dennis, Micro Insurance Academy, February 2011
This paper focuses on mutuals, cooperatives and community-based schemes (MCCOs) which share the principles of mutuality and have successfully provided a variety of financial services to the poor, including insurance.
Since most commercial insurers are already registered under insurance law, the supervision of their microinsurance activities is not a new challenge. By contrast, MCCOs may pose a significant burden for the supervisor because they can occur in large numbers and their organisational structure is very diverse.
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Innovation Flash Issue 10 available
The ILO's Microinsurance Innovation Facility has published the tenth issue of its newsletter, which includes an editorial from Anja Smith from Cenfri who highlights that distribution channels should be more active in providing quality services to clients. The newsletter also highlights the Facility's new innovation grantees and shares useful resources, such as publications, videos, training and events.
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