The Landscape of Microinsurance in the World’s 100 Poorest Countries

Now that the benefits of financial services for the poor are more universally recognized and accepted, and microcredit is becoming a common tool in the infrastructure of developing countries, it is a good time to look at another beneficial tool for the building of sustainable infrastructure in the developing world. Like microcredit, microinsurance has the potential to significantly aid the lives of the world’s poorest people and positively impact the development of the world’s poorest countries.

“Microinsurance is simply the protection of low income people against specific perils in exchange for regular premium payments proportionate to the likelihood and cost of the risk involved. This definition is essentially the same as one might use for traditional insurance except for the clearly prescribed target market: low-income people. However, those three words make a big difference.”

Because their resources are so limited, low-income people can experience great financial disruption when unexpected events befall them. Due to the same limited resources, low-income people have limited capacity to read more…