Did you celebrate Microinsurance Month?
Today marks the end of the first-ever Microinsurance Month in the Philippines. The country is already out in front on mobile banking. Here's hoping that they'll generate the same kind of enthusiasm for microinsurance.
For the nitty-gritty, see a dated but extensive report on microinsurance in the Philippines from the International Labour Organization. Published in 2002, it calls for policies to meet the huge unmet demand for insurance against natural disaster.
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Now that they have mobile banking and mobile insurance, all they need is mobile fast-food, shelter, and water.
Posted by: BankBuzz | Feb 1, 2007 11:54:05 PM
With all advances made in the banking and information technology;around 2.5 billion poor people,people living on less than a dollar a day still has several constraints on them like illiteracy,financial illiteracy,cultural barriers,gender bias,lack of legal identity,lack of incentives for financial services providers and their employees etc.that denies them access to institutional finance and micro-finance;including insurance.Celebration of micro-insurance month is an innovative idea that will go a long way in expanding access to financial services for poor people by creating awareness among them about the availability of various financial products and their rights
Posted by: ajit | Feb 2, 2007 3:11:56 AM
To Ajit's wish list above I would add housing. Most people will never access financial services, macro or micro, without a permanent and reliable address. Housing is a right, and a key step on the way to full participation in any economy.
That's one reason why Muhammad Yunus's Grameen Bank places an emphasis on housing. In addition to providing micro-finance and insurance to facilitate the purchase of capital equipment and supplies that can lift people out of poverty through work, the development community must stress the need for new and innovative housing solutions. This is urgently needed.
From Bombay's jhopad pattis to Jakarta's slums we're hearing the same story: Untenured residents booted out by globalization's bulldozers, their homes and livelihoods destroyed in one fell swoop. The solutions offered them are old and tired ones that have failed countless times before: land-barter and government housing.
I would like to see someone set 30 days aside as global fair housing month and devote them to giving poor people a voice in the housing debate, and some legal and economic rights in the cities where they live.
Posted by: Hasan Jafri | Feb 4, 2007 11:04:51 PM