To culminate this year’s Microinsurance month celebration, the Insurance Commission (IC) will give due recognition to life and non-life insurance entities actively engaged in the delivery of microinsurance products and services. Microinsurance, as defined by the IC, are insurance products that are affordable, simple and accessible to low-income and informal sectors of society.
Dubbed as the “Gabi ng Parangal at Pasasalamat sa mga Tagapagtaguyod ng Microinsurance”, the awarding ceremony shall be held at the Philippine International Convention Center on 31 January 2012. The month of January of every year was declared as “National Microinsurance Month” through Proclamation No. 1212 issued in 2006.
According to Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc, this year’s event will highlight “Government’s steadfast commitment, in partnership with the private sector, to uplift the conditions of our poor countrymen by providing them access to simple and low-cost protection against risks and unexpected events.” Microinsurance has been identified as one of the financial inclusion priorities of Government in its 2011-2016 Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan.
To be honored are government’s partners in the promotion and advocacy of microinsurance. These entities are insurance associations, life and non-life insurance commercial companies, mutual benefit associations and cooperative insurance entities licensed by the IC. As part of the criteria, these entities have supported microinsurance through the development of small insurance products approved by the IC and have actually sold these products to the low-income market as of 15 December 2011.
Prior to this year’s culminating event, the IC and the Department of Finance-National Credit Council (DOF-NCC) conducted a Training on Microinsurance Advocacy (TOMA) for various stakeholders on 18-20 January 2012. Participants came from both national agencies and local governments, insurance providers, microfinance institutions, support institutions, donor agencies and non-government organizations. The training is geared towards creating a core mass of advocates in the government and private sectors in increasing awareness of the general public on the importance of insurance for risk protection. Currently, the Philippines lags behind its neighbors in terms of insurance penetration which hovers at below 14 percent of total population.
On 27 January 2012, a public seminar and a press conference was conducted at the Diamond Hotel. The seminar, together with the “Gabi ng Parangal” awards ceremony, is part of the nationwide roadshow “Financial Literacy on Microinsurance” campaign spearheaded by the DOF-NCC and the IC. The financial education drive aims to cascade the knowledge and importance of microinsurance among all sectors of the economy in 16 regions all over the country. So far, two roadshows have been conducted in Tacloban City, Leyte and Butuan City, Agusan del Norte in the last part of 2011.
The government’s microinsurance initiative is provided technical assistance support from various multilateral agencies such as the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction-Asian Development Bank (JFPR-ADB) and the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) for its potential to help alleviate poverty in the Philippines. Designed for the low-income group, microinsurance products are priced affordably and require simple documentation for easy access by its target market.
No comments:
Post a Comment