The poor face a huge amount of risk – a friend of ours from the world of high finance reflected they are like hedge fund managers. These risks can come from health shocks, like an accident, or agricultural shocks, like a drought, or any other number of unexpected crises.
The poor face a huge amount of risk - a friend of ours from the world of high finance once noted that they're like hedge fund managers. These risks can come from health shocks - like an accident - or agricultural shocks - like a drought - or any other number of unexpected crises. Often, the poor just don't have the means to weather these shocks, and so they get pushed into poverty traps.
The steps they take to protect themselves form these risks are insufficient and often costly: they choose less profitable and less risky crop, they spread themselves too thin across a great number of activities; they exchange favors with neighbors. Yet all this doesn't always even cover large shocks.
So where is formal insurance for the poor? Is that the next billion-customers opportunity?
The poor face a huge amount of risk - a friend of ours from the world of high finance once noted that they're like hedge fund managers. These risks can come from health shocks - like an accident - or agricultural shocks - like a drought - or any other number of unexpected crises. Often, the poor just don't have the means to weather these shocks, and so they get pushed into poverty traps.
The steps they take to protect themselves form these risks are insufficient and often costly: they choose less profitable and less risky crop, they spread themselves too thin across a great number of activities; they exchange favors with neighbors. Yet all this doesn't always even cover large shocks.
So where is formal insurance for the poor? Is that the next billion-customers opportunity?