Since our last update, we have co-funded 12 new and exciting projects focusing on a varied area, e.g., loans and savings linked to agriculture and business, digital platforms, and providing access to water and sanitation, micro-life and health insurance, index-based agriculture insurance for smallholder famers and pastoralists, digital savings for women and youth and financial literacy:

In Cote d’Ivoire, Reseau Mucrefab Côte d’Ivoire (REMU-CI) will work on scaling-up a ‘Digital savings’ product  for low income consumers along with providing consumer education

In another project in Cote d’Ivoire, OKO will work with Allianz on a weather index-based crop insurance for smallholder farmers

In Ethiopia, Democrance will work with local insurance company for building resilience with digital micro health solution  for low-income consumers

In Ethiopia, Jamii.one will work on leveraging its digital platform to scale affordable life insurance and to launch health insurance for community-based groups

In Indonesia, Blue Marble will support from Zurich General Takaful Insurance will work on developing and launching a parametric insurance scheme for coffee smallholder farmers

In Lebanon, Vision Fund international and World Vision Lebanon are working together on providing health insurance to vulnerable children in the country and personal accident cover to their families

In Pakistan, Mobilink Microfinance Bank with support from Business & Finance Consulting (BFC) will work on customising a credit scoring solution that will increase the outreach  of the 

What is the future of Green Inclusive Finance? 

Green inclusive finance is critical to addressing climate change and making low-income and vulnerable households more resilient. Here is an insightful piece by our team on - what role it plays, how it is evolving to meet development challenges, and how SCBF is supporting this endeavour. Read the blog here.

Unlocking the benefits of embedded insurance for micro and small businesses – Insights from Mozambique 

In Mozambique, micro-entrepreneurship is fraught with high-impact, disruptive economic events, with few mitigation or management tools available to those affected. With support from SCBF, Accion used human-centered design to help Socremo improve its savings product with the inclusion of a funeral cover to increase it’s outreach. You can read the full report on the project to understand the outcomes, challenges, learnings and the key-takeaways. Read the report here.

Five lessons for designing fit-for-purpose health micro-insurance

In Kenya, SCBF is supporting a health micro-insurance project being implemented by Cenfri, Britam and M-Tiba. Cenfri did a study on the market’s perception of insurance, sentiments about the hospital industry and current resilience practices based on which they are working with the other partners to adapt the product to be able to reach the low-income market segment. In a blog published by them they share the “Five lessons for designing fit-for-purpose health micro-insurance”. Read the blog here.

      Welcoming Blue Marble as SCBF’s newest member

Blue Marble an insure-tech focusing on climate protection and insurance for underserved communities has joined SCBF as its 30^th member. With aligned areas of synergies, they  will be working together to create a lasting impact on vulnerable communities. Read about it here. 

       SCBF in Media: Driving resilience in the African continent

In a published article, JeuneAfrique, highlights the work done by SCBF in the African continent since 2011, that has helped improve the lives of more than half a million people (half of it are women) in the continent. Read the article here.

       Partnering on a project for increasing access to WASH

On 24th March 2023, SCBF signed a contract with Aqua for All and La Banque Agricole (LBA) of Senegal, alongside of the UN Water Conference 2023 for a unique project

The signing ceremony was attended by (sequence in the pic): Mr. Malik Ndiaye, CEO, La Banque Agricole; Honorable minister of Water and Sanitation, Senegal Mr. Serigne Mbaye Thiam; Ms. Josien Slujis, MD, Aqua for All and Ms. Sitara Merchant, CEO, SCBF

SDC commissioned an independent evaluation of SDC’s Private Sector Engagement (2015-2021). The evaluation assessed the performance of SDC’s programmes and projects along the OECD DAC criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, impact, efficiency, and sustainability. The evaluation aims to support SDC in achieving the objectives of Switzerland’s International Cooperation Strategy 2021-2024, and in contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The full evaluation report, including SDC’s Senior Management Response can be found here.