Publication database

Health microinsurance (HMI) can deliver value to clients and support efforts to achieve universal health coverage. Despite being the most demanded type of microinsurance across the world, its success remains limited and HMI providers face a myriad of challenges: how to provide affordable comprehensive benefits, prevent illness, reduce administrative costs, provide access to quality health care, limit fraud and moral hazard, and manage the cost of care? 

SNV was engaged by the Danish International Development Organisation (DANIDA) to implement the Rural Agriculture Revitalisation Project- Commercialisation of Smallholder Farmers (RARP CSF), an initiative which seek to facilitate commercialisation of smallholder agriculture  with a view to promote improved household incomes, employment and food security. The project aim was to reach 280,000 smallholder farming households throughout all eight rural provinces in Zimbabwe. The study should serve as a guide for the Government in the formulation of policies that support the development of viable smallholder farmer based horticulture value chains in Zimbabwe.

This paper highlights opportunities for banks to create shared value. It is intended to help bank leaders, their partners, and industry regulators seize opportunities to create financial value while addressing unmet social and environmental needs at scale.

The last brief of Client Value series provides recommendations for policy-makers, regulators and funders on how to create an enabling environment that promotes client value. The insights are based on new impact evidence of microinsurance and the experience of countries where governments and donors are using insurance related interventions to achieve public policy objectives or develop the market. The brief presents ten blueprints to guide government and donor decisions and actions across the three main dimensions 1) insurance promotion through public-private partnerships (PPPs) and subsidies; 2) investment in infrastructure and client education; and 3) regulation and supervision.

This report identifies the need for community safe water solutions (CSWSs) in rural India and reviews the models employed by key sector players to address this need. It provides a platform for assessing and understanding the market for CSWSs by exploring the current economic and operating models, operating challenges, and funding scenarios for ensuring sustainability and scale-up.

Some banks have started to develop partnerships with commercial outlets, such as shops or pharmacies, who provide a set of financial services on behalf of the bank. This model has been particularly successful in Brazil, where the number of bank branches remained stable from 2002 to 2011, but the number of banking correspondents experienced a 19 per cent annual growth rate. Find out about Bradesco’s experience using its extensive network of almost 47,000 banking correspondents to sell personal accident and funeral insurance.

This briefing paper presents an introduction to the key challenges facing the cocoa industry in Indonesia and Vietnam. It focuses on the current approaches to improve productivity taken by business and identifies opportunities and interventions required for a move to an inclusive business approach.

UAB Vie offers a highly-trusted savings product to market traders in Burkina Faso. The daily, manual transactions were proving inefficient and prone to error and fraud. It therefore decided to equip each member of its sales staff with a mobile phone to record the transactions in real time. This brief reflects on the advantages and limitations of this technology upgrade.

In the past decade, some insurance associations have expanded beyond their traditional core functions to develop insurance consumer education (ICE) programmes. While the motivations for doing so are diverse, ICE programs ultimately aim to improve the perception, and spread the culture, of insurance.

Microinsurance Paper #34 discusses the different approaches available to insurance associations in Latin America to effectively deliver ICE. Emphasis is placed on a business model for associations, while providing key general lessons and links to useful reference material. The discussion is based on a review of the experiences of insurance associations in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. 

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) is a programme that needs no introduction. Launched in 2008 to provide secondary care to below poverty line (BPL) households, the scheme has expanded rapidly. Today, it covers nearly 38 million households and is present in 512 districts (out of a total 640) across all 28 states and union territories. This paper analyses key performance indicators (KPIs) for the programme, so as to identify ways of improving the scheme’s performance. 

The study focuses on three KPIs:

Enrolment ratio, measuring the percentage of eligible households enrolled, so as to estimate outreach;
Hospitalization ratio, to estimate utilisation;
Claims ratio, one of the key metrics that determines whether the scheme is profitable for the insurers.