|
|
The second volume of the Microinsurance Compendium published by the two organisations today said that the number of people covered by microinsurance is now close to 500 million, up from 135 million in 2009.
Microinsurance aims to protect those on low incomes against risks such as accidents, illness, death in the family, natural disasters and property losses in exchange, for insurance premium payments tailored to their preferences and capacity to pay.
According to the Compendium, there have been many innovations in the field of microinsurance over the past years. For example, new products covering a variety of risks have been piloted and distributed to poor households through an increasing diversity of channels (e.g. banks, retailers or cell phone companies).
"Since 2008, we have seen numerous innovations emerging to overcome the challenges of providing viable insurance services to more low-income people", said Craig Churchill, team leader of the ILO's Microinsurance Innovation Facility and chairman of the Microinsurance Network.
"Efforts now should focus on increasing effectiveness so that insurance products can successfully reduce their vulnerability. The Compendium comes at the right time to help insurers, delivery channels, donors and other stakeholders understand what it means to provide valuable risk-management services to the working poor."
"Indeed, what the developed world took several hundred years to accomplish cannot be replicated within a decade in the developing world, even given all the new technology and knowledge that is now available", said Dirk Reinhard,vice chairman of the Munich Re Foundation. "Providing microinsurance effectively requires the involvement of many stakeholders from the public and private sector who are not used to working together and who often have very different objectives and operating systems. What matters now is the process of getting key stakeholders to work together effectively."