Swiss Re Boosts Microinsurance Offerings

Swiss Re announced two major initiatives yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting in New York.

In an effort to blunt the impact of cholera outbreak in Haiti, the company unveiled a new cholera insurance scheme aimed at the country’s women entrepreneurs. Working with Fonkoze, the country’s largest microfinance organization, Swiss Re will provide policies that ensure “real-time” payout once a pre-defined set of criteria, such as cholera-related hospital admissions and observable weather factors linked to cholera outbreaks are met. The initiative will build off of an existing catastrophe microinsurance product the company offers in Haiti.

"Some 4,000 women who lost their homes or business assets in the floods earlier this year have already received USD 1 million in payment,” said Michel Liès, Swiss Re’s chairman of global partnerships. “We expect this cholera policy will be similarly effective in ensuring that the infection of an income provider does not result in destitution for the entire family.”

The second commitment is intended to protect farmers in Senegal against the potential impact of climate change on their crop yields. To do so, Swiss Re is working with Oxfam America, the World Food Program (WFP) and WFP sponsor USAID, to create an ‘insurance for work’ program that gives farmers the option to pay for their premiums with their labor. Based on an existing program in Ethiopia, the initiative also includes mitigation efforts which engage farmers in local irrigation and forestry projects intended to reduce the impact of climate change on their villages.

"Insurance is a cornerstone of economic growth and stability, and [we at] Swiss Re are proud to contribute our expertise so that even the poorest farmers and their families can cope when crops are ruined by drought, flood or other climate related impacts,” Liès said. “We have demonstrated that even farmers with no monetary income can build a better future by trading labor for insurance, in ways that also help to strengthen their communities."

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