Impact

The Impact Working Group seeks to enhance knowledge about the impact of microinsurance by increasing the quality and quantity of available evidence, and to assist in its dissemination.

News

The group met end of June at the Network Member meeting in Königstein, Germany and information on next steps will be available soon.

Annual workplan

In 2011, the Impact Working Group will:

• Finalise the Practical Guide for Impact Assessment: the draft chapters are to be completed and the Working Group requires reviewers for them;
• Continue fundraising;

Practical Guide to Impact Assessments

It is also coordinating the authorship of the Practical Guide to Impact Assessments of microinsurance. This guide, geared towards a non-academic audience, will be available both in print and in an online Wiki format. The draft chapters are complete and the Working Group requires reviewers for them.

Global Stocktaking Initiative

Additionally, the Impact Working Group will continue to update the Global Stocktaking website, which was launched in December 2009, and add new features to the site, including completed impact assessments of microinsurance.

Systematic review of completed impact assessments of microinsurance

The Working group is conducting a systematic review of completed impact assessments of microinsurance. Preliminary results show that, though there have been some studies on the impact of microinsurance, many have methodological problems. As a result, the ability to draw insights across these studies on the impact of microinsurance is reduced.

Additional information

What is impact?

"Impact" is defined as observable changes or effects on conditions or behaviours resulting directly or indirectly, positively or negatively, from a specific microinsurance programme. Impact assessment observes, measures and describes the results of an intervention or programme.

Why assess the impact of microinsurance?

At present, very little is known about the impact of microinsurance on the client, household, community, enterprise or institution. Funding agencies may request programme evaluation; however they rarely require schemes to assess their impact. As a result, there is a paucity of impact research available. As more funds pour into the sector, such information on impact is urgently needed. Impact research, however, would need to build on high-quality research methodologies, many of which are not yet developed for microinsurance impact assessment. High-quality impact research could assist microinsurance providers to better understand how their products are working by flagging any changes or side effects, positive or negative, attributed to their product. This information could then be used to:

• Produce evidence on the most effective programmes;
• Learn from past mistakes and avoid ineffective designs;
• Create more effective programmes;
• Include impact assessment in product design;
• Assist donor agencies in funding effective, evidence-based programmes.

What is needed?

Some lessons could be learned from impact assessment of microfinance programmes, but need to be made available for microinsurance; many, however, do not exist yet and need to be developed and tested. High-quality microinsurance impact assessment should include a mixture of methodologies, tailored to respond to different impact dimensions depending on the type of insurance scheme.

The Impact Working Group consists of more than 20 experts in the domain of impact assessment.

Past activities

2010

The Impact Working Group released two notes: Global Stocktaking of Ongoing Impact Assesments, a project note providing an overview of the activities of the Working Group's global stocktaking project in microinsurance by briefly describing the activities, the stocktaking website and identified trends, and The Practical Guide to Impact Assessments, a publication note, which outlines the content of the planned practical guide and is looking for contributors and supporters.

Micro Insurance Academy (MIA) received a second full-time ILO's Microinsurance Innovation Facility fellow, Heidi McGowan, to coordinate the Impact Working Group activities from July 2010 to July 2011.

The Working Group also drafted a fundraising proposal and applied for and was awarded 10.000,- Euro from the Microinsurance Network to kick-start its planned "practical guide" activity.

This Working Group was set up in November 2007.

Mode of operations

The Impact Working Group mainly communicates via e-mail and relies on individual project execution by ILO Microinsurance Innovation Facility Fellow.