Rwanda is hosting the 4th Eastern and Southern Regional Conference on Microinsurance aimed at sharing insights on inclusive insurance business models and strategies, Rwanda's The New Times reports. National agricultural insurance schemes and weather index insurance pilots will be discussed as tools for making agricultural insurance accessible to smallholder farmers.

Oliver Ralph and John Aglionby at the Financial Times wrote in The Big Read about how "insurance will help deliver relief more effectively". The authors cited several disaster risk insurance programs undertaken by development agencies and governments, including Kenya's Livestock Insurance Program.

In a blog posted on the World Bank Group's Voices, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, Senior Director in the Finance & Markets Global Practices, wrote that "strengthening women’s role in finance is one of the keys to boosting economic growth." 1.1 billion women worldwide (about 42% of the global female population) remain unbanked or have little access to finance, and this fact poses economic and developmental challenges. Click here to read the blog and more about the new World Bank Group's Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).

In a press release ahead of the G20 summit, Peter Höppe, Chairman of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) and Head of Geo Risks Research/Corporate Climate Centre at Munich Re said, " It is high time that G20 nations take responsibility to support the most vulnerable countries in their fight against climate change and the increasingly severe impacts of floods, heatwaves and changing weather patterns." "One major milestone would be a climate insurance partnership that helps vulnerable and poor countries and communities better cushion the impacts of extreme climatic events," he added...