In a recent interview with Pedro Pinheiro , the coordinator of the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) Inclusive Insurance Working Group, we gained insights into a new joint initiative to scale inclusive insurance in Africa and Asia. The IDF is a public/private partnership led by the insurance industry and supported by international organizations. The IDF was first announced at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP21) Paris Climate summit in 2015 and was officially launched by leaders of the United Nations, the World Bank and the insurance industry in 2016. The new phase follows an...

It all started with a dream: to increase access to credit and contribute to securing the livelihoods of the rural poor in Uganda – mainly farmers. It was unfamiliar terrain. Typically, smallholder farmers lacked a credit history, and in the case of women, lacked both a credit history and acceptable forms of collateral such as land that could be used to secure a commercial loan from a bank. Where farmers could access informal loans, the money lenders charged them exorbitant interest rates. This discouraged farmers from using these loans to buy farm inputs such as quality seed that could...

The recent panel discussion at the 2023 World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meeting, " Expanding Opportunities for Women's Leadership ," shed light on the importance of empowering women entrepreneurs and leaders. The panelists, Makhtar Diop, Managing Director, IFC; Melinda French Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Adji Bousso Dieng, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University, emphasized the need to increase the number of women in leadership positions and support women-owned businesses, highlighting the crucial role played...

Niger is a Sahelian, landlocked and low-income country of approximately 25 million inhabitants with an estimated GDP per capita being among the lowest in the world (US$ 591 in 2021). The country is exposed to multiple risks of fragility, conflict and violence which coupled with extreme weather conditions and natural disasters result in increased food insecurity and other challenges. Successive shocks, most recently the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 flooding disaster only heighten the fragility. The WBG has initiated a new technical assistance project supported jointly by GIIF and by the CDRF...