MR Microinsurance_2012_03_29.indd - International Labour ...

Teaching elephants to dance
Box 19.15 Partnerships and products responding to partner needs
Developing products that specifi cally address the needs of a distribution partner
can help to convince partners of the benefi ts ts of collaboration:
– – Credit life, a typical entry-level product, pays off a loan if the borrower dies. It
is normally sold through microfi nance institutions, and directly improves the
risk profi le of these organizations. Increasingly, it also pays a benefi t to the bor-
rower’s survivors and perhaps provides other benefi ts as well (see Chapter 9).
Covering these risks is intended to make borrowers more confi dent in taking
the loan and lenders more ready to make loans.
– Weather insurance covers risks from adverse weather, such as too little or too
much rainfall. When it is coupled with the sales of inputs – such as seeds or
fertilizers – it can help producers of these inputs to increase their sales to smallscale
farmers wary of weather risks. For example in Kenya, the Syngenta Foundation
is promoting an indexed insurance product for corn and wheat under-
written by UAP, a local insurance company, and distributed by agriculture
input suppliers (see Box 24.3).
– Property insurance covers the continued use of specifi c items of property. A
product off ered by Zurich in Indonesia, in collaboration with the multi-
national cement company Holcim, is coupled with building materials for
low-income houses and gives clients more confi dence in the quality of the
housing.
– Health microinsurance is often off ered together with healthcare providers,
which benefi t from more stable incomes and improved client demand. For
example, in the partnership between ICICI Lombard and the Manipal group
of healthcare providers described in Chapter 18, Manipal benefi ts by gaining
access to a client base that is required to make use of the group’s hospitals for
their treatment.
Developing such products requires high levels of fl exibility on the part of the
insurer, and the willingness and resources to get to know the priorities of partner
organizations before developing the product.
Source: Angove and Tande, 2011; Interviews with insurance managers; Syngenta Foundation website.
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