The health care system in Bangladesh is mainly urban-based, elite-biased and curative-orientated. Even though nearly 75% of the population lives in rural areas, the public and private health care development has concentrated mainly in urban areas. The standard and the level of health care provided by the public sector is inadequate due to low investment, bureaucratic mismanagement, and the lack of equipment, facilities, and trained medical professionals.

The case study focuses and analyses the practices of AIG Uganda and their collaboration with FINCA Uganda. The authors identify the good and the bad of the practices and draw conclusions from them. This case study relates a success story, but it also relates a story of a product that has not seen a reasonable amount of evolution. This is partly due to a lack of pressure from the MFIs, and partly because AIG Uganda did not recognise the importance of microinsurance within its product mix.

The studies clearly indicate that access to microinsurance by the poor and disadvantaged population can contribute significantly to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger (MDG 1), promoting gender equality and empowering women (MDG 3) and developing a global partnership for development (MDG 8).

This case study is about an institution that is owned, controlled and used by very humble people (street vendors, subsistence farmers, unemployed women, semi-nomad shepherds, among others), living in one of the poorest countries in Africa, Mali. It is a case study about mutual health organizations1 (MHO) that have started to spring into existence in urban and rural West Africa (mostly French speaking) and provide health insurance to hundreds of thousands of people, up from a few tens of thousands just five years ago.

This study covers two microinsurance schemes in Sri Lanka, ALMAO and Yasiru. Both operate through local organisations that manage all fieldwork. The local partners recruit clients/members, collect premiums and administer claims. The main target group for both ALMAO and Yasiru is the rural poor.