Originally published by ICMIF.
12 December 2025
The ICMIF Foundation recently convened project leaders of the UNDP ICMIF Insurance Innovation Challenge (IIC) for a virtual webinar, to share the progress, lessons, and impact of their scaling-up initiatives. The IIC supports mutual and cooperative insurers in developing economies to scale innovative, affordable, and inclusive insurance products that address the needs of underserved households and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), with a particular focus on women.
Moderated by Vicky Hughes, Vice-President, Membership, ICMIF (UK), the session featured presentations from IIC project leaders for Kenya, Malawi, Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka who shared how financial and technical assistance provided through the IIC has helped them achieve project targets, strengthen delivery systems, and reflect on strategic approaches to implementation.
IIC impact by the numbers
As of 30 June 2025, technical and financial support through the IIC has enabled the four partner projects to collectively issue 23,420 new insurance policies, providing protection to an estimated 82,589 people across Kenya, Malawi, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines:
- CIC Kenya: 1,385 policies | 2,835 lives covered
- CIC Malawi: 6,777 policies | 33,885 lives covered*
- Sanasa Life Insurance (Sri Lanka): 3,201 policies | 3,295 lives covered
- MiMAP (Philippines): 12,057 policies | 42,619 lives covered
*Number of lives covered per policy is an estimate.
Leadership and strategic capacity strengthened through masterclass
The ICMIF Foundation Strategic Masterclass series has played a pivotal role in strengthening partners’ capacity to manage and scale their projects. The sessions provided practical tools for strategic thinking, testing assumptions, and fostering adaptive approaches to implementation.
Emma Ongayo, Board President, SEDMFI MBA (Philippines), shared: “The ICMIF Foundation Strategic Masterclass has been very helpful in refining our project implementation. We learned that ownership of the process and responsibility is achieved when key stakeholders are involved from the planning stage. This is exactly what we did during the development of the operating manual, which was co-created by the MFI and the MBA.”
South–South learning accelerating progress
South–South technical assistance has been another cornerstone of support from the IIC, enabling mutuals in developing markets to learn from peers operating in similar contexts. This peer exchange helps project partners address product, regulatory and operational challenges, toward scaling microinsurance more effectively.
Michael Mugo (CIC Kenya) noted: “We have received valuable guidance on microinsurance through the UNDP ICMIF IIC, particularly on human-centric design. This has helped us strengthen our distribution channels and put in place the foundations for long-term scaling up and sustainability of the project. In particular, we deeply appreciate the technical support provided by CARD MBA. Our visit to the Philippines through this international collaboration with the ICMIF Foundation provided us with many important learnings.
Savitha Herath (Sanasa Life Insurance) also reflected: “One of our staff members, Asanka Gayan, had the opportunity through the IIC to visit DHAN Foundation in India. Through the DHAN Mutual Insurance Course, he learned about the needs of underserved communities and how to tailor affordable, appropriate products with strong awareness programmes, especially for women and the elderly. This learning has been invaluable in developing new, innovative products and resilience centres for our market.”
Mutuality in action
This virtual session highlighted the transformative impact of financial and technical support provided through the IIC. It also reaffirmed the power of solidarity among mutuals, supported by donor partners worldwide, in sharing expertise and creating scalable, sustainable microinsurance programmes.
Webinar recording
ICMIF Members should click here to request a copy of the webinar recording.