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...

Ethiopian pastoralists have received payouts for index-based livestock insurance offered by a local insurance company, Thomson Reuters Foundation reports . In Ethiopia, livestock insurance schemes were initiated by the International Livestock Research Institute, which has been providing technical support for the design and monitoring of the index in the country, the report adds.

Parametric insurance has the potential to serve a significant developmental role in Africa, as it pays out benefits based on a predetermined index for losses resulting from catastrophic events, Clyde & Co's Max Ebrahim and Wynne Lawrence wrote in Commercial Risk Online . In the article, GIIF's collaboration with ACRE Africa , which is serving the populations in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania, is also cited.