Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii)

A2ii initiated the Inclusive Insurance Innovation Lab (iii-lab) series to support the development of inclusive insurance markets. Given low insurance penetrations in many economies world-wide and vast populations still unserved or underserved, A2ii recognized that inclusive insurance development requires collaboration of different actors, both in the public and private sector as well as civil society. The iii-lab provides a space for intensive collaboration between key stakeholders in a year-long process. The iii-lab achieves this by bringing together diverse insurance sector stakeholders to work together to overcome barriers, innovate, and advance inclusive insurance. 

Following a call for expressions of interest, A2ii selected Guatemala’s Superintendencia de Bancos (SIB) and the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA) to participate in A2ii’s 5th iii-lab, which focuses on designing innovative insurance solutions that help vulnerable populations better manage health risks.

Objectives 

  1. Foster dialogue: Build trust among participants and establish new networks.
  2. Influence stakeholders: Strengthen expertise in inclusive health insurance and help advance the lab's agenda.
  3. Drive action: Launch projects using customer-centric and experimental methods. 

Participating countries

Methodology

The iii-lab is a year-long, hands-on collaboration between a diverse set of stakeholders to support the development of inclusive insurance markets. Grounded in a social lab methodology, the lab convenes stakeholders to examine country-specific challenges and co-create solutions. Using innovative methods and tools, participants work collaboratively to synthesize insights and pilot ground-breaking solutions. The participatory dialogue processes and methods ensure all voices are heard and play a role in shaping the outcomes of the journey. The iii-lab consists of a series of national and international workshops held in-person and virtually. 

Before the start of iii-lab

  • A2ii selects countries from the pool of supervisors’ applications to participate in the lab.
  • Selected applicants convene their country teams, each consisting of up to 16 key stakeholders (eight institutions) from the inclusive insurance sector. 

During iii-lab

  • Teams start a dialogue, build networks in the national insurance sector and internationally.
  • Teams analyze their country systems, decide on a focus area and beneficiary group.
  • Teams conduct user research including interviews with representatives from the selected beneficiary group.
  • Teams prototype innovative solutions to advance the inclusive insurance market.
  • Teams implement their prototypes by testing them in the real world and refining them where needed.  
  • Teams receive expert input and benefit from peer exchange across country teams. 

 After iii-lab

Once the iii-lab formally concludes after one year, country teams assume the responsibility of implementation going forward.

  • The fifth iii-lab takes place in 2024/25 with Guatemala and Namibia and focuses on health risks.
  • The fourth iii-lab took place in 2023/24 with Armenia, Nepal and Senegal and was the second iii-lab to focus on climate risk resilience.
  • The third iii-lab took place  in 2021/22 with Costa Rica, Grenada, Zambia and Zimbabwe and focused on climate risk resilience.
  • The second iii-lab took place in 2020/21 with Argentina, India, Morocco and Rwanda.
  • The first iii-lab took place in 2017/18 with Albania, Ghana, Kenya and Mongolia.