Today, regulatory supervisors, governments, public and private donors, and stakeholders in the insurance market are committed to improving access to insurance products. New legislation on microinsurance, sound policies conducive to the development of insurance markets, and the growing activity of traditional insurance and reinsurance companies in this field are clear signals in this direction.

Today, regulatory supervisors, governments, public and private donors, and stakeholders in the insurance market are committed to improving access to insurance products. New legislation on microinsurance, sound policies conducive to the development of insurance markets, and the growing activity of traditional insurance and reinsurance companies in this field are clear signals in this direction.

This volume aims to highlight many exciting innovations for sustainable development in Africa at the local level. It also begins to assess the scope for scaling up these innovations to make an impact on a larger scale. This particular case study focuses on an organisation called Microcare which was created out of a Community Health Financing Micro-Insurance initiative in Uganda.

The aim of the author’s field research was to assess the impact of health microinsurance on the working poor in Nairobi, Kenya. The analysis is mainly based on qualitative expert interviews with microinsurance clients in order to gain an in depth understanding of the benefits and shortcomings that the utilization of health microinsurance has had for the lives of informal workers in Kenya. The focus of the analysis is on the potential improvement of social protection of informal workers through health microinsurance.

At the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, Peru suffered a severe economic crisis that led to the implementation of structural adjustments measures to achieve macroeconomic stability. These policies resulted in a revitalisation of the financial system, including the emergence of new types of financial institutions. In this context, low-income persons, who previously had not had access to credit, found funding alternatives in line with their circumstances, which enhanced their income and improved their living conditions.