Workshops and Seminars

Insurance policymaking is not gender-neutral. Women and men have the potential to be differentially impacted by financial sector policies and by regulatory and supervisory approaches to insurance.

Driven by data indicating a persistent gender gap in financial inclusion, discussions have been taking place about the financial inclusion of women, including women’s access to and usage of insurance. While the limited data available for the insurance sector in developing countries is currently inconclusive, it has been established that women face a number of legal, economic, and socio-cultural barriers that could disproportionately impede their access to insurance. Such barriers may include the predominance of women in the informal sector, lower levels of financial literacy, and the inability to enter legal contracts without male signatories. In such cases, women are comparatively more vulnerable to a multitude of risks that could plunge them into poverty. Despite these barriers, there is a huge market opportunity in providing inclusive insurance for women. Recent estimates suggest that women represent a market opportunity for insurance premiums of between US$1.45 and US$1.7 trillion by 2030[1].

This roundtable aims to inspire momentum and raise awareness among insurance supervisors, policymakers and industry of the transformative potential of gender approaches. It is proposed to provide an introduction on how supervisors have started to consider gender dimensions in their work, in particular by exploring differences between women and men’s access to insurance, emphasizing the relevance of women’s access to insurance in the context of financial inclusion policymaking.

The Roundtable is jointly organized by the Superintendencia de Seguros de la Nación (SSN) and the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii), with the support of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).

SSN about the event: follow this link.

Picture gallery: follow this link

[1] IFC & AXA, 2015.