Now reading: A decade of microinsurance innovation: promising or ‘meh’?

Microinsurance and Health Financing


Microinsurance refers to the provision of insurance to lower-income households. If appropriately designed and intermediated, insurance products can play an important role in reducing vulnerability for low-income households as well as presenting profitable markets for commercial insurance providers. In addition, ensuring well-functioning health financing systems is a critical element of development policy and the delivery of health services.

We’ve done extensive work on the regulation and development of microinsurance and health financing markets in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Digital Transformation & Data

A decade of microinsurance innovation: promising or ‘meh’?

In October 2023, Doubell Chamberlain spoke to Rishi Raithatha about the impact that innovation and technology has had on the microinsurance market over the last 10 years. This is a short excerpt from the full interview. You can read more of the interview on the MicroInsurance Network site. Q: What

Microinsurance and Health Financing

5 lessons for designing fit-for-purpose health microinsurance

Gakere is a 49-year-old mechanic from Nairobi, and like 77% of adults in Kenya, he does not have National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) or private health insurance. “If I fall sick, I treat myself. As you can see I do very strenuous jobs and someone who does not have good

Microinsurance and Health Financing

The role of different partners for effective MSME insurance

Insurers can partner with digital platforms, lenders and insurance aggregators to offer better products that matter for MSMEs.   Despite being heavily underfinanced, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are critical drivers of economic growth and contribute substantially to employment and innovation. They account for 50% of global employment and 90%

Insurance for development

Upscaling mobile-based health insurance in Kenya

Britam and M-TIBA receive Swiss Capacity Building Facility (SCBF) funding to scale up mobile-based health insurance Britam and M-TIBA have received funding from Zurich based SCBF for technical assistance to scale up a mobile health insurance solution offered by Britam and accessed on the M-TIBA mobile platform. The SCBF funding

The complexity of partnering to provide microinsurance
Insurance for development

The complexity of partnering to provide microinsurance

A case study on Turaco and Fenix International in Uganda  Generally, health insurance has a very low uptake across Africa. According to Finscope, 53% of Ugandan adults report experiencing a health risk in the last year but only 1.4% of adults have any kind of formal insurance. Ugandan insurtech Turaco created a hospital

FSD Africa impact report
Microinsurance and Health Financing

FSD Africa’s Impact report

Between 2012 and early 2020, FSD Africa, supported by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, reached over 5.47 million people and contributed to at least 3.2 million MSMEs accessing credit to grow and/or sustain their businesses with financial services and products across Africa. In FSD Africa’s inaugural Impact Report they unpack how they achieved this impact

MSME microinsurance
Insurance for development

Managing risks (more) effectively: Rethinking insurance for MSMEs 

MSMEs form the backbone of many economies globally and give rise to economic growth, employment and innovation. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the extreme vulnerability of MSMEs to exogenous shocks and risks. However, the uptake and use of insurance remains extremely low for this group. In sub- Saharan Africa, it

insurance
COVID-19 impact and recovery

Microinsurance Network Annual Report 2019

International concern about the impacts of climate change and natural disasters has brought the insurance community together to build resilience and manage risk more effectively. At a time when insurers should be leveraging their risk management skills and not merely selling risk transfer policies, some companies want to reduce their

Insurance for development

Health insurtechs: from incremental digitisation to full digital ecosystems

Health – and the welfare implications of illness – has rarely been more front of mind than in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic As a think tank looking at the role of the financial sector in society, we have been tracking trends in health insurance for a number of