Headquartered in Geneva, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) engaged GBRW to develop and execute pilot schemes for microinsurance operations in both Pakistan and Tanzania.
AKF is a private, not-for-profit international development agency, which was founded in 1967 by Shah Karim Al Hussaini, the Hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims.
GBRW worked closely with AKF to launch the First Microinsurance Agency (FMiA), which was inaugurated today as Pakistan’s first dedicated microinsurance agency. In addition, GBRW supported the launch of the First Microinsurance Agency Tanzania (FMiA-T) to supply similar services.
Microinsurance includes a range of products that can help the working poor manage economic hardship such as natural disaster, hospitalisation, or a death in the family. Poor families in the developing world are more likely to experience financial hardships that can make it impossible to rise out of poverty. Products included health insurance, harvest insurance, loan insurance, and others.
Both agencies worked closely with cooperatives, village savings and loan associations and other microfinance institutions in an effort to provide the rural poor with a way to protect themselves from unexpected and adverse events.
Deliverables included:
– Scoping and planning for pilot launches of microinsurance agencies in both Pakistan and Tanzania;
– Development of innovative insurance products and services for AKF in Pakistan and Tanzania;
– Establishment of First Micro-insurance Agency (FMiA) the first corporate insurance agent in the Pakistan market;
– Establishment of First Micro-insurance Agency (FMiT) the first corporate insurance agent in the Tanzanian market; and
– Specifications for IT system to handle the hundreds of thousands of members that both agencies would handle each year.
