Tina Blain:

Hi, everyone. Welcome and thank you for joining us for this information session today. I’m Tina Blain, resource mobilizer for the ICMIF Foundation. I’m really pleased to say joining for this information session, we have Miguel Solana, who is inclusive insurance specialist, regional technical lead for Latin America and the Caribbean at UNDP. Kamilla Adgamova, who is research officer at UNDP, and Sabbir Patel, who is CEO of the ICMIF Foundation. Welcome, thank you for joining us.

We’ve got one hour for this session, and during which we plan to give you an overview of the UNDP ICMIF Insurance Innovation Challenge and what it’s all about, and how you can apply. Then following on from that, we’re going to have a Q&A session on any questions you have on the application process. Bearing in mind that most of the information we will provide today is already in the application package, we are going to focus on answering your questions.

We want to give as much time for that as possible. If you have any questions, hopefully you can see a chat box on the side of your screen. We ask you to put any questions you have in that chat box, and we’ll try and address them during the Q&A session after the presentation. If we don’t get to your question during the Q&A session, please don’t worry, because we do plan to write full, written answers to all questions that have been put to us.

They’ll go on the ICMIF website where you can currently download the application package. We’ll put them there as soon as possible after this session. Just so you know, this information session is being recorded and you’ll be sent a link shortly after. Excuse me, the slides are going forward by themselves there. This session is being recorded and you’ll be sent a link shortly after the session finishes, so you’ll have it for reference, so please don’t worry about taking notes.

It is only going to be conducted in English. But if you would like any clarification in Spanish or French, please email [email protected], and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Without further ado, we’re going to jump straight in and I’m going to pass over to Miguel, who is going to provide some background information on the importance of inclusive insurance to the UNDP. Explain a little bit about the role of the UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility. Thank you, Miguel. Over to you.

Miguel Solana:

Thank you, Tina. First of all, I would like to thank the ICMIF Foundation for organizing this session. I believe it’s extremely important for us to be able to create this kind of forum to clarify things. Very quickly, as a brief welcome note on why from UNDP we’re working in insurance, and why we are working with the ICMIF Foundation to support mutual and cooperative insurance. I believe from UNDP, we are the development arm of the United Nations.

We’re present in around 160 countries, carrying out together development work with national governments, private sector, and civil society. In general, we’re relatively late joiners into the work of insurance for development. But what we have realized over the past decades, is that risks, certain risks are at work. Without being able to create a strong partnership with insurance industry, we cannot be able to protect all the advances and steps that we take towards sustainable development.

Therefore, we have created or UNDP has created, let’s say a technical arm that it’s working and integrating insurance to the development work that we do. We are doing this with support from the Federal Ministry of Economic Operation and Development of Germany, and through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that are supporting our activities. First of all, I would say trying to promote the integration of insurance to development frameworks, meaning how can we bring insurance to public policy?

How can we integrate it into national adaptation plans, into national defined contributions, and other relevant country frameworks that support countries in advancing their development agendas? Then I would say we are working on inclusive insurance, which is exactly the topic that we have here today. We’re trying to figure out how to create incentives for the insurance industry, to propose solutions for the work that we’re doing.

Finally, I think the key element that we’re doing is on risk finance and supporting governments to develop insurance solutions. Or have access to insurance solutions that can help them manage the macro risks that are key for public policy. One of the key elements for us is, and I think this answers why do we want to work with ICMIF Foundation? This pretty much is around we see the value that cooperative and mutual insurers bring on the table when it comes to developed programs for inclusive insurance.

We believe they’re closer to the communities, to the individuals that are in need of new insurance protection. We believe that the cooperative mutual insurance industry has been one of the pioneers, in terms of developing what we 20, 25 years ago used to call microinsurance. That has evolved maybe since 2014, ’15 into inclusive insurance. We believe that by creating this specific window for the cooperative and mutual segment of the industry, we can drive a new generation of products that tackle the protection challenge that we have ahead of us.

We can say we are in the middle of the Sustainable Development Goals. We have five more years to go. Therefore, this is an opportunity to show how in the coming five years we can work together with cooperative and mutual insurers, to guarantee that women, farmers, SMEs have access to new products that are relevant to them. That help them to address the risks that they’re facing, and the risk that they will be facing in the future.

With this, I hope I have given a relatively clear picture of why we want to work with ICMIF Foundation. I think I will leave the floor now to Sabbir to drive us to this collaboration that is in place now between ICMIF Foundation and the UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility. Thank you.

Sabbir Patel:

Thank you very much, Miguel. Hello, everybody. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. Thank you, Miguel, for those encouraging words. We really appreciate the partnership that we’ve been able to put together with the UNDP and the UNDP’s support to the mutual and cooperative sector. Just to give a little bit of brief introduction into the ICMIF Foundation. For those that are not familiar with who we are and what we do, the ICMIF Foundation was established by ICMIF.

For those that don’t know ICMIF, ICMIF is the global association for cooperative and mutual insurance companies around the world, and we have around 200 member organizations. We’ve been established for over 100 years, and ICMIF specifically has always been very supportive of developing mutual inclusive insurance. Since 1963, we’ve been doing work in this area, supporting various mutual programs around the world to serve communities who need it the most. The reason being is that it is in our DNA.

Mutuals exist to self-serve the underserved communities, and many of our members in their history, in their beginnings from decades ago and centuries ago, all were set up to provide the insurance to underserved communities. As a result, the ICMIF board and the ICMIF membership decided to increase our work in this area by establishing the ICMIF Foundation, which is a UK-based, charitable organization. We started that in 2015. Our first program was the 5-5-5 Mutual Microinsurance Program.

Since 2016 when we launched our program, we’ve managed to reach three million low-income families with insurance products and community resilience building. Our approach is very unique. We are supported by the ICMIF members, mutuals supporting mutuals. Our focus is on helping those mutuals in emerging markets, to be able to develop their mutual insurance programs in the mutual way. That is unique in terms of making sure we engage with communities.

We work with communities and the communities are driving our programs, in terms of what their needs are, and making sure that they completely understand and are fully aware of what insurance is about. But also look at other areas such as risk reduction, risk prevention and risk management strategies as well. Our overall objective is to empower communities and build long-term, sustainable, resilient communities. In terms of the partnership, we have sent out a lot of information and I’m going to cover things briefly. We want to give as much time as possible for questions for everybody.

The UNDP Insurance and Risk Insurance Facility and ICMIF Foundation have come together and with a focus of scaling up mutual microinsurance, specifically serving the needs of underserved households and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The particular focus is on women and empowering women to have access to insurance products. We also, as Miguel mentioned, we want to contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Also, the Insurance Global Partnership 2025, in particular, the target of 150 million poor and vulnerable people covered by micro-level insurance.

Nope, has to be one person account. Okay. In terms of the awards, it’s 100,000 US dollars we are offering for four projects to be selected over a period of two years. In terms of who can apply, the criteria is available for you to see specifically where we want to support cooperative and mutual insurance programs, who are legally allowed to sell mutual and cooperative insurance. And who have been in operation for three years and showing financial sustainability.

Which goes back to the point that with the support we want to give, we want to be able to move the dial and scale up the mutual microinsurance outreach in those particular countries. What kind of projects are suitable? I’ve already mentioned the target beneficiaries. With the amount of money that is available, we are focusing on products that are simple, easily accessible and affordable, as we feel those are the ones that will have the maximum opportunity to scale up with the support we’re giving.

We obviously would like to see that the products have been tested in the market and there is evidence that they will be in the long-term, financially sustainable. We also would like to see a demonstrable impact on the lives and livelihoods of the target population, as I mentioned particularly women, and also building long-term community resilience. As the name of the fund suggests, we also would like to see a degree of innovation in what makes this project proposal different to other proposals that are out there.

How can the funding that we provide, allow you to do what you are doing in a much more efficient and quicker manner? The support period for the initiative should not exceed two years, and the funds requested would not also exceed over 100,000 US dollars. What are the focus areas? The IIC is particularly interested in projects that focus on innovation, scale, ability to be replicated, and also developmental impact, gender and sustainability.

There’s more details on the application form in terms of what these areas entail. This is also reflected in the eligibility criteria and the evaluation criteria, which we’ll come to. In terms of the process, we launched the fund on 8th of March and obviously, we now have this information session. The deadline for submissions is the 28th of April, after which we will do, the foundation will do an initial assessment of all the applications against the eligibility criteria.

Then pass on all of the proposals that have passed the eligibility criteria, to the selection committee who will make their evaluation. The projects will be ranked in accordance to the criteria and the top four projects will be selected for the next stage. Subsequent to that, we will work with each of the organizations, each of the winners, each of the selected organizations, and work with them to help develop a final project documentation. After which we will then announce the awards and the signing of the agreements with each organization.

There will be a period where we will work with the organization to commence the project. We’re anticipating that would be in August and we’re hoping that all projects will be ready to start in the third quarter of this year. This is the evaluation criteria, which the selection committee will assess each of the proposals that are being put forward and have passed the eligibility criteria. You can see the weight is specifically on scaling up, replication, gender, development impact, sustainability, and then innovation and so on.

A maximum of four projects will win an award and that will depend on the quality of the applications. As I mentioned already, the winners will receive training and support to develop the final project proposal. In terms of the application form, so how to apply. On the website, you will find all of the necessary, relevant information. We would encourage you to download the whole application package. This is available in English, French and Spanish.

That includes the guidelines for the applicants, the application form, as well as the budget template. Then once you’ve managed to read through all of the information, please fill in the application form and submit that to us by email before the deadline. There is also a declaration that needs to be signed, which is attached to the application form. Then in terms of with the application form, there are a number of attachments that could be and should be attached.

These are listed here. Specifically, you’re looking at obviously the budget template, the audited financial statements of the organization, a copy of the actual insurance product policy, and a profile of the team members. Also, some summary information in terms of your overall inclusive insurance initiatives that have taken place over the last three years. Submission by 28th of April, but during that time, please do send us any questions you have.

Please feel free to touch base with myself in terms of what you are thinking of applying, any clarifications. We’re here to help you develop your proposals to give you the best chance of succeeding. That’s it, so I wish everybody good luck with your proposals, and we’ll be happy to hear any questions that you might have. Tina, back to you and Kamilla.

Kamilla Adgamova:

In case you have any questions, please feel free to type them in the chat so that they come through.

Maybe while participants are thinking in terms of which questions to put, we can start going by some of the questions that have been submitted earlier, so that maybe they can be responded.

I’m looking at the list of questions that were shared earlier and one of the questions is how do you define a mutual program? Maybe, Sabbir or Miguel, if you want to take that.

Sabbir Patel:

Obviously, there are many different definitions depending on the jurisdiction. But for us, mutuals are those programs that are community-owned, community-focused, and community-driven.

These are the core principles we would anticipate seeing, in terms of a proposal from a mutual organization.

Kamilla Adgamova:

Then another connected question to that, if we’re not a mutual insurer yet, yet we work with cooperatives as distribution partners of our inclusive insurance product, does this qualify?

Sabbir Patel:

I shall answer that. From our perspective, an actual application would be from a mutual insurance provider. We would be anticipating the actual program to be a mutual program.

Not a partner, agent, model or something like that where obviously, the cooperative or mutual is only a distributor. We’re looking at the actual cooperative and mutual to be the insurer itself.

Tina Blain:

Sure, Kamilla. The first question we have is how many $100,000 awards are there available?

Sabbir Patel:

We have in this particular round, we anticipate giving out four awards of $100,000 each. The idea is that we want to build our knowledge, build our experience, build what is useful to mutual insurance programs as we go forward.

This is hopefully going to be a long-term program, but for this particular round we want to start with four programs at the maximum.

Tina Blain:

Thank you. The next question is, does ICMIF have a public directory of cooperatives, or would ICMIF or fund organizers play a matchmaking function for project partners in any way?

For example, if we are a tech provider looking for a cooperative to partner with. For example, if we are a tech provider looking for a cooperative to partner with, who might need our solution?

Sabbir Patel:

I think generally speaking, we obviously do have an idea of mutuals around the world, and who they are and who’s doing what. Then also there’s the wider cooperative sector as well, which is also available in terms of knowing where the cooperatives are.

If an organization is developing some sort of service that mutuals and cooperatives can utilize, which will help them expand their insurance programs, then that’s something that could be considered, if that is appropriate for the actual cooperative and mutual insurer to put into the proposal.

Tina Blain:

Thank you. The next question we have relates to match funding. Could you explain a little bit about the requirements of the match funding, please?

Sabbir Patel:

We see this as a partnership, not only a partnership between the UNDP and the ICMIF Foundation where we are also matching the funds to the program, but also with the organizations on the ground. Because our focus is on scaling up, we want to help organizations do what they are already doing. We anticipate organizations that are committed to extending the outreach of mutual microinsurance, and have their own resources in place to support those initiatives. The level of matching that we expect is 50% from the local partner.

That can be either cash, or in-kind resources or a mixture of both. As long as it’s reasonable and verifiable, that’s as much as what we ask. Because what we see is, as it’s only a two-year program and the amount of funding is limited to $100,000. We would expect the proposing organization to continue its commitment on the program beyond the project life, in order to ensure the program reaches its sustainability levels and also maximizes its outreach.

Tina Blain:

Thank you, that’s great. The next question, is the challenge fund focused on insurance products alone or any mechanism to provide financial security?

Miguel Solana:

Given the nature of our program as Insurance and Risk Finance Facility, I think we are really focused on insurance products. We believe the risk transfer element is key. It’s not that we minimize importance of other mechanisms that help households, enterprises, communities to manage the risk. But the risk transfer element through insurance as a product is extremely important here.

What we foresee to see is insurance products that target I wouldn’t say always vulnerable, but exposed market segments that would be able to transfer the risk that they’re facing. I think one of the elements that I see is very important and also in this initiative, is that we could be thinking about a diversity of risks. Then this can go from life insurance, health insurance, climate insurance, business interruption for enterprises, so on.

I think we want to be very broad in terms of the products and the risks that can be managed through the proposed products of this initiative.

Tina Blain:

Thank you. Sabbir, do you have anything to add to that answer?

Sabbir Patel:

Absolutely. It is entirely about how we can deliver the right insurance coverage, which has the maximum impact on the communities. We understand that there are other measures that can help manage and reduce risk as well.

Which are important in the journey, ensuring that insurance has the maximum impact when we provide this to the community. Ultimately, the objective is to get insurance to them in the best possible way.

Tina Blain:

Thank you. The next question is around partnerships and eligibility criteria. The question specifically is, should a UK academic institution submit a joint application with a local insurance company located in an emerging market? I think it’s more about eligibility of who can apply and partnerships in application.

Sabbir Patel:

There’s nothing to stop that type of application. I don’t see any issue. As I said, there’s an eligibility criteria, which needs to be adhered too.

But nothing in very specific about who the partners can and cannot be, as long as it fulfills the eligibility criteria.

Tina Blain:

Thank you. The next question, can one organization put in more than one project proposal?

Sabbir Patel:

Yes. We do have that information in the documents where an organization can provide more than one proposal if it has that capacity to do so.

But we are limiting awards to only one per organization. Whilst an organization may put in more than one proposal, only one per organization will be awarded in this round.

Tina Blain:

Thank you. Will there be future calls for proposals? Is this just the first phase of a multiphase process?

Sabbir Patel:

Well, we have to see specifically the demand as well for this. Depending on how many applications we get, what type of responses we get to this particular call, we are open to submit announcing further calls in the future.

At the moment, it’s a matter of trying to assess the demand for this type of support and how that can help mutuals and cooperatives to scale up their insurance programs.

Definitely it’s something we hope we can do and we anticipate that we will consider another round further down the line this year, depending on how this round rolls out.

Tina Blain:

The next question is relating to the training that the winners may get. Could you expand on that a little bit, what might the training involve?

Sabbir Patel:

Once organizations have been selected and they’ve completed the relevant paperwork, and we have an idea of what the project is about. We will work with each of the organizations to look at how we can develop a more detailed project document, which includes a more detailed logic framework, and budget and roadmap, and so on. It’s really to work hand in hand with the proposing organization to really go into the detail. Because we understand that at this stage, we will probably get a certain level of information.

But once we know that the organization has been selected, we can work more closely to really get through the detail before we actually start mobilizing the project. Which will allow us to make sure that any other issues that might come up are resolved before the project starts, and we’re all on the same page in terms of how the project is going to be rolled out going forward. Allows the monitoring and the managing of the project to be as sufficient as possible and less burdensome for the applicant organization as well.

We would also train them in terms of the reporting requirements, and make sure they’re clear in terms of what type of information is required on a quarterly basis and an annual basis, as well as the end of the project report and so on. It’s just to make sure that the organization is aware of what’s required and has the right systems in place, to be able to provide that information without it diverting its resources away from delivering on the project.

Tina Blain:

The next question is if the lead organization is a cooperative promoting their own mutual product, but the other partners in the consortium are not insurance-based but more microfinance institutions, is that okay to form a consortium?

Miguel Solana:

I can take this one. I think the one interest that we have is on the cooperative mutual insurer. Then on the partnership level, I think the insurance, the cooperative mutual insurance can try to find partners that are very close to the community. They may not always be cooperative, but it is important to think that the leader of the consortium is the cooperative mutual insurers that can work with the diversity of partners.

That can be, from what I’m listening through the conversation, could be academic, could be technology solutions providers, could be financial institutions. I think there can be a diversity of community organizations that could be also possible partners in this consortia. I think the only part of the formula that is fixed at this point is on the insured side. That it is meant to be cooperative and mutual given the scope of this initiative, but on the other side of the partnership it is pretty open.

Tina Blain:

The next question is what is the approximate starting date of the project?

Sabbir Patel:

In terms of the process diagram, which I shared, we’re anticipating projects to commence in the third quarter of this year. That’s the plan at the moment.

Tina Blain:

Is your expectation that the project will develop a finished insurance product, and pilot it in the field?

Sabbir Patel:

In terms of the objective of our program, is to scale up existing programs and we are not anticipating supporting pilot programs.

We believe with the support that is available, the best utilization of that support is to scale up already tried and tested products that are in the market and have been already running for at least a year. That’s the focus of where the funding is going to be, not pilots as such.

Tina Blain:

There’s a question on the reporting. The reporting will be to ICMIF if they’ve understood that correctly and in addition to the regulator, is the question.

Sabbir Patel:

The regulatory reporting would be by country and that would always already be in place for those organizations. Under this particular program, we would anticipate a quarterly report and a quarterly call with each organization before each quarter’s funding is then released. That would be the format.

Our objective is not to make the reporting cumbersome. We want to work with the organization to understand its own reporting systems, and try and integrate our reporting requirements with information that it already is receiving as part of its project management system. That would be what we would anticipate.

Again, in the training we would work with the organization to help them understand what areas we would like the reporting to cover. But in terms of the regulatory requirements, those are therefore, all organizations that fall under the regulatory purview.

Kamilla Adgamova:

There is one question on sustainability. How do you expect the program to be sustainable in two years? Maybe if you can define what is understood under that.

Sabbir Patel:

We understand that within a two-year period, it is difficult to achieve financial self-sustainability. We’re not anticipating programs to be self-sustainable at the end of the two-year period, but we’re expecting them not to be dependent on funding from external sources beyond that period.

We anticipate that the proposing organization has a commitment to support the program beyond the project life. Provide a roadmap in terms of showing when self-sustainability is anticipated for the program, so that we can see that once the project funding has stopped, the project does not stop. The project continues to grow and reaches its potential.

Miguel Solana:

If I can interrupt here quickly, I agree with Sabbir in terms like what I feel the expectation here is, is that we want to support programs that could use this help to scale up, but that wouldn’t depend from this kind of program to exist. I think the key element is around this scale up. We are very clear that insurance programs take more than a couple of years to be fully sustainable on a commercial basis. We only want this opportunity to be a catalyzer for opportunities that have been already tested, piloted and so on.

That could really go to scale in order to help them then to be sustainable over time. We know that one of the key elements for any program to be sustainable is the scale, is how many clients we can reach over time. Therefore, an interest and sustainable programs and where this would just help us to catalyze the element around reaching even further scale through the partnerships, through the different technology and other elements.

Sabbir Patel:

Just to add also, is that it is scaling up but it’s scaling up with substance that we want to see. It is sometimes quite easy to reach a lot of numbers but without substance. Then you have challenges in terms of renewals and then that affects the sustainability of the program.

We want to see scaling up with substance and that is key too, in terms of ensuring long-term sustainability of the program, where the communities are owning the program, driving the program, believing in the program, and are very comfortable to renew irrespective of the fact of whether they’ve made a claim or not.

Kamilla Adgamova:

Thanks, Sabbir. There’s also question on the context. Are there activities such as financial education, risk prevention and risk reduction eligible for funding? Are these activities also eligible?

Sabbir Patel:

From our perspective, and it is all part of the risk management equation. Again, it has to be part of the purpose of getting the right insurance products out with the right impact to the communities.

It all depends in terms of how they fit into that journey. We don’t expect to see a project, which is just focusing on risk reduction and risk prevention, and nothing on getting the insurance products out to the community.

It really needs to be balanced in terms of getting the right product, with the right impact out to the communities managing the risk, that are not being able to be managed by the communities through other measures, such as risk reduction and risk prevention.

Tina Blain:

We just have a few more questions. The first one is, will the co-financing contribution of 50% be outside of the funding received? Can partners in the consortium, who had non-insurance entities, also contribute to the co-financing?

Sabbir Patel:

The $100,000 is not part of the co-financing, if that’s what the question was asking. The total project cost would be what it is, of which $100,000 would come from the IIC program, and the remainder coming from the proposing organization, which should be at least 50%. It depends on how much they are asking for what that would be.

In terms of who can provide the core funding, as I mentioned before, we want to see a commitment from the organization itself. That it is seriously looking at the mutual inclusive insurance as a part of its organization’s objectives. But also obviously, if there are partners that are willing to contribute funding and services, I think that can be considered as part of the co-funding.

But for us, it’s also important to see the actual proposing organization committing its own resources to the program as well. As we mentioned in terms of long-term sustainability, there has to be continuity after the program has finished.

Tina Blain:

Thanks. The last question is, are takaful operators considered mutuals? To clarify, I mean organization’s licensed as takaful operators such as in Malaysia?

Sabbir Patel:

ICMIF, we have recognized takafuls as organizations that are close to the mutual model and we do have some members within ICMIF who are takafuls, but we also understand that there are various models of takafuls out there. It would need to be looked upon on a case-by-case basis, how close to the mutual model that particular takaful provider is.

Depending on the certain elements in terms of surplus, distribution, profit sharing, and also representation and engagement of the membership, we would look at that on a case-by-case basis. But certainly in principle, takafuls are seen and have at their core, mutual philosophy and principles.

Kamilla Adgamova:

There’s one question on application sections. On the section related to proposed solution where it is asking to describe the proposed solution and expected outcomes.

The question is, should this follow the logic framework methodology? If yes, what would be the recommended number of expected outcomes?

Sabbir Patel:

Logic framework, the impact should be related to, as we mentioned, gender, the SDGs, resilience, and the goal should be related to the increase in outreach.

The outputs should address the problem and the constraints of increasing outreach. We would recommend that output objectives should not exceed three.

The less, the better and simpler, in terms of project management forward as well.

Kamilla Adgamova:

Miguel, do you want to add anything on number of expected outputs or all good?

Miguel Solana:

I think in terms of outputs, it depends on the initiative. I think that’s going to be open. I think the overall result to what we will be looking at, is the expected amount of clients that we think we would be able to touch with all the work that we are planning to do. I think both Sabbir and myself have said together, we believe that it is a scale of the outreach that will be important. Though this doesn’t mean that we’re looking at it through a direct. We know that we are working in a very diverse world with big and small countries, and different nature of organizations.

I don’t think that that would be something that we would be able to have direct comparisons what organizations and countries with a high population can achieve, which is a lot more than when you are working in smaller countries. But certainly, is this idea of how can we take one idea that has been piloted or that is being commercially successful. We want to take it, so to say, to the next level in terms of the organization. We’re not having enough resources to go ahead with this scale up, and this is exactly what we want to look at.

Sabbir Patel:

As I mentioned, we will be providing some training and support to finalize the logic framework and the project document as well. I think we want to try and keep things as simple as possible.

As Miguel said, it depends on the proposal, but we don’t want to overcomplicate proposals with different requirements as such.

Kamilla Adgamova:

There’s also one question related to Sustainable Development Goals. Of the seven SDGs listed for the project to impact, is there any priority among the Sustainable Development Goals the project should be impacting and addressing?

Miguel Solana:

I think we know that insurance contributes to the SDGs. We know that insurance contributes through this risk management element. I don’t think we’re expecting a product that can contribute to several at the same time. I think it’s the idea of being able to create a consistent narrative around which is the SDG that we can contribute with.

For example, I believe insurance for SMEs tends to contribute more, for example, to SME-8 around this work and productivity, pretty much because of the contribution that SMEs have in total employment, and the generation of revenue and so on. Therefore, those can be concentrated into that. I think, for example, the agricultural insurance projects can contribute, for example, to the objective two on zero hunger, but maybe they have less relevance for the SME-8.

I think it is just understanding that the SDGs are really broad, and sometimes our products are contributing to more specific products, to more specific SDGs and that’s okay. I don’t think we need a broad narrative around contributing to everything.

Tina Blain:

Is there any clarity you can provide around what those funding categories are?

For example, should they be staff salaries or time? If there is any definition of what those categories are, is there any specific percentage of the ask that these should be?

Sabbir Patel:

I think it’s pretty open in terms of what the project needs, each project will have different needs. Within our eligibility criteria, we are able to fund certain things and not fund other things. It really depends in terms of the requirements of the project in order to scale up. But definitely, any cost that are defined as co-funding should be direct cost to the project, and they should be verifiable and they should be reasonable.

That’s what we would expect. The whole project document should make sense in terms of what the co-funding element brings, and why is it needed and why is it necessary? Then what does our funding and our technical support bring, in terms of overcoming some of the challenges for scaling up of the initiative?

Kamilla Adgamova:

One last question, what happens to proposals that pass the eligible criteria, but do not get ranked into the top four by the selection committee? What will happen to those proposals?

Sabbir Patel:

In terms of the process, the selection, once we have received the completed applications, we will do an eligibility check. Then all of those eligible will be passed onto the selection committee. Depending on the number of proposals we get, the selection committee would then need to rank the proposals and award the top four ranking applicants for the prize. That does not mean that the other proposals are insufficient or incomplete in any way, but it means that there are stronger proposals within this particular round that we would allocate the support too.

In that respect, the proposals would then, the people that have been given the awards, we will work with them to develop the project document. Until the project document is signed, we would not announce the awards as such. There is still opportunities if once we go into the detail that the projects are not feasible, we may end up going back to those that have passed the eligibility criteria and are ranked next in the process. But more importantly, is that we would go back to the organizations that haven’t been selected in this particular round.

We will see how we can either help them in continuing with their proposal, or developing their proposal further or strengthening their proposal. There may be possibilities for some technical support if it’s needed in the meantime through the ICMIF network, not through the program, in order to allow the proposal to be considered in maybe the next round of funding. That possibly is what we would explore with those organizations that haven’t been ranked in the top four.

Tina Blain:

We’ll bring the session to a close. Miguel or Sabbir, is there anything you’d like to add at this point, add to the recording that hasn’t been said or please feel free?

Miguel Solana:

From my side, I’d just encourage organizations to participate. I think this is a great opportunity to test new approaches, to scale up protection for market segments that up until today, haven’t really been served with valuable insurance products.

Really validate the fact that we really believe that the mutual and cooperative insurance are in a great position to lead innovation on the inclusive insurance market.

Sabbir Patel:

Thanks everybody, fellow panelists and Tina, Kamilla as well. Everyone listening, we hope this is the start of a meaningful journey going forward.

It’s an opportunity for mutuals and cooperatives to showcase what they are doing, and hopefully we can work together and help as many of you as possible to do what you are doing.

Tina Blain:

Fantastic, thank you. All written answers will be put up on the IIC page of the ICMIF Foundation website, where you can currently download the application package.

We will accept questions via email. Please contact us, [email protected] until the 26th of April. If you require any clarification in French or Spanish, please do email us at the same email address. Just to say thank you once again for joining, and we hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

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