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Microinsurance includes a range of products that can help the working poormanage economic hardship such as flooding, drought, hospitalization, or adeath in the family. Workers in the developing world are more likely toexperience hardship that can make it impossible to rise out of poverty, yetless than three percent of people in the world's 100 poorest countries haveany type of insurance to protect them from financial shock.
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"Opportunity International is a trusted partner and the Micro InsuranceAgency has great leadership and experience in this nascent industry," saidPriya Jaisinghani, program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."They are committed to testing different insurance products, methodologies anddelivery systems all over the world, while helping to protect the poor fromthe severe financial consequences they face in their daily lives. Thefoundation is optimistic about the potential for microinsurance, and we have alot to learn about products and services that will truly provide value topeople living in poverty. We hope this grant will have tremendous impact bycombining learning with doing."
The funding is part of the foundation's Financial Services for the Poorinitiative, which is working with partners to develop and employ innovativeways to bring a wide range of financial services, including microinsurance, topeople living in poverty throughout the developing world.
"The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant will enable us to rapidly scaleup the agency so we can offer insurance to poor people who have never enjoyedthe basic protections that insurance provides," said Richard Leftley,president of the Micro Insurance Agency. "We are grateful that the foundationhas acknowledged our capability to design, test and develop affordableinsurance products that will give the poor a measure of economic security thatdoesn't exist in the developing world today."
An estimated 2.5 billion poor people worldwide have no access toinsurance, Leftley explained. Only 0.3 percent of the poor in Africa have anyinsurance, and in 23 of the poorest 100 countries in the world, there is noidentified microinsurance activity. "In some African countries, there is mucheducation to be done because there isn't even a word for insurance in thelocal languages," Leftley said.
Opportunity International began offering microinsurance in 2002 andestablished the Micro Insurance Agency in 2005. Currently, the organizationhas 675,000 life, credit or crop insurance policies covering 3.3 million poorpeople in 10 African and Asian countries. Among its early innovations, themicroinsurance pioneer developed a viable life insurance product in Ugandathat includes coverage for persons with HIV/AIDS. In Malawi, a crop insuranceprogram protects farmers from severe drought that caused starvation in theirvillages only a few years ago.
Will Enable Growth and New Products Including Health Insurance
The Micro Insurance Agency has developed innovations and technology tocreate affordable insurance products for individuals and groups of the poor.A typical life insurance policy costs about $1.50 per month and pays a deathbenefit for the head of household, spouse or child. "This keeps the economicshock of losing a family member from sending a working family back intopoverty," Leftley explained. The life
