Publication: Microinsurance : What Can Donors Do?
Date
2008-04
ISSN
Published
2008-04
Author(s)
Latortue, Alexia
Montesquiou, Aude de
Ward, Vanessa
Abstract
In most countries, reaching scale and
providing real value to clients will likely require donor
involvement in the medium term. Donors will need appropriate
expertise and resources to engage effectively in micro
insurance because it is relatively new, complex, and risky.
Donors have diverse reasons for wanting to support micro
insurance. Even within the same agency, different units may
have varying views on how subsidies can be used best, how
much clients should pay for insurance services, and what
roles the government and the private sector should play.
Strategic clarity on the reasons for engaging in micro
insurance affects how a donor's objectives are set, how
expertise is recruited, and what type of monitoring is
implemented. There is still no consensus on what constitutes
good performance for micro insurance programming. In part,
this is simply because micro insurance is a relatively new
area. To improve accountability for results, donors should
agree up front on desired outcomes and performance. The
Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) Working
Group on Micro insurance's subgroup on performance
indicators is leading efforts to define industry wide
reporting ratios and, ultimately, to establish benchmarks.
This work is essential to improve performance reporting and
will help shape donors' performance agreements with partners.
Citation
“Latortue, Alexia; Montesquiou, Aude de; Ward, Vanessa. 2008. Microinsurance : What Can Donors Do?. CGAP Brief. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/3f663e2f-c2d6-5880-a787-580010a52e8a License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”