NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, June 28, 2019

A new study from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership has, for the first time, analysed how mutual microinsurance, a community-owned model of insurance, contributes to the recovery of low-income households following a natural disaster. The report, looking at mutual microinsurance through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), indicates greater resilience for those households covered by mutual microinsurance than those without.

In many developing and emerging economies, mutual insurers are not recognised legally, hampering their ability to function optimally and to support those most in need of their products. Despite the fact that the mutual insurance sector holds 27 per cent of the global insurance market and that the sector is the fastest growing part of the total market (ICMIF Global Mutual Market Share 10) there has been very little independent research into the viability of mutual microinsurance as a business model and its value in improving the conditions of individuals, their families and communities.

Photo courtesy of Shukuko Koyama.