Innovation Grants from ILO

The Microinsurance Innovation Facility, housed at the International Labour Organization’s Social Finance Programme has announced the availability of grants to “support organisations to develop innovations in the microinsurance sector. The grants can support insurance against any type of risk, but priority is given to products where demand exceeds supply, such as agriculture, health, life and property.” Supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Facility works to expand quality insurance services to the families in low-income and developing countries so that they can prepare themselves against risk and reduce the consequences of poverty.

Although health microinsurance will be specially emphasized under the new grant announcement, ILO will also accept proposals on projects that focus on “high-impact products and innovative distribution channels.” Another area of support can be for strengthening the capacities of low-income communities on accessing better insurance products. The grants can serve as the much-needed capital to develop and implement microinsurance products and models and cover up start-up expenses and any losses incurred initially. Projects can be proposed for up to three years, but organizations should ensure that the intervention leads to self-sustainability at the end.

Applications to apply for this funding have to submitted online. Actually, the application process has been divided into three windows: Health microinsurance products, other microinsurance products and capacity building. There are different submission guidelines for each of these windows. However, the deadline to submit the proposals through all the windows is 2 March 2010. For more information, visit this link.