Publication database

Index-based insurance is an innovative financial service that can help smallholder farmers manage some of the risks related to weather conditions. Considering the lessons and insights gathered from index insurance and financial education projects, as well as from the field of behavioural economics, the Global Action Network to advance agriculture insurance (GAN), coordinated by the International Labour Organisation’s Impact Insurance Facility and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has worked to put together guidelines for index insurance education to support the industry to deal with this task.

With 1.5 billion people worldwide getting access to financial services through a post office, postal networks are powerful tools to advance financial inclusion. Posts possess or can develop characteristics such as client understanding, product diversification, national outreach, rural advantage, and trust with clients that have the potential to transform postal networks into well-suited providers of insurance. Insurance is a relatively easy way for posts to diversify their sources of revenue.

This study by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) delves into the transformative potential of postal networks into well-suited providers of insurance. The report concludes by presenting three types of business models in which postal insurance can help advancing financial inclusion through insurance access.

Small businesses are vital to economic development. However, they are exposed to a wide range of risks, ranging from theft of assets to illness of a key worker or a natural disaster. Furthermore, they struggle more than larger businesses to cope with these risks. Insurance represents an important tool to help them better manage such risks.

This report offers a first set of insights, distilled from the knowledge of leading practitioners, on how to successfully integrate smallholders into value chains through effective service delivery and smallholder aggregation models. It uses case studies from five African and Asian countries.

Insurance for small businesses represents a promising market for insurers. Nonetheless, it poses significant challenges related to product design, distribution and insurance culture and demand. This paper is dedicated to analysing these challenges, but it also looks into ways to overcoming them by looking at emerging good practices of providers.

This report lays down a framework that defines inclusive business, sets out recommendations to enable inclusive business, and proposes a way forward for governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders.

With funding from FAO, the Contract Farming Support Program (CFSP) of SNV tried to improve the smallholder farmers’ access to input and output markets as well as extension support through contract growing with private companies.
 

This issue brief illustrates how inclusive business solutions link up to each of the 17 SDGs, and presents common internal and external challenges faced by companies when developing and scaling these solutions

This paper aims to explore how Corporate Impact Venturing, encompassing all ventures generating financial, strategic and social and/or environmental returns, is applied in practice, and what is needed to enable such productive partnerships between corporations and inclusive business in low-income markets of developing countries.