Country Director Elena Tischenko's remarks at micro-insurance workshop

H.E. Ngy Chanphal, Secretary of State, Ministry of Interior, Vice Chairman of the Council for Agriculture and Rural Development

H.E. Ou Bun Long, Secretary of state, Ministry of Economy and Finance

Exellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to be here today on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme and United Nation Capital Development Fund in Cambodia to open this workshop on social protection, focussing particularly on the role that micro-insurance can play in this regard.

We all recognise the importance of social protection strategies in supporting Cambodia’s most vulnerable, particularly women and children, by providing them with access to essential services, especially during an emergency and crisis.

Social safety nets mitigate the risks and vulnerabilities faced by the poor and low-income groups from external shocks by ensuring and sustaining progress on the MDGs, protecting employment and livelihood opportunities and ensuring affordable health care for the poor.

The Royal Government of Cambodia sees this as a priority and has on many occasions renewed its commitments to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The approval of the National Social Protection Strategy last March, which has been disseminated last week, is a significant achievement that will assist Cambodia to make further progress on its development agenda.

People with low income live in risky environment, vulnerable to numerous perils. The poor are more vulnerable to risks than the rest of population, and they are the least able to cope when a crisis does occur. These people, especially in developing countries, lack access to appropriate insurance and social protection services that could enable them to cope with risks more effectively.

The bottom line here is really that preventative measures (such as social safety nets) are far more cost-effective than curative or response measures.

Many countries are now actively considering micro-insurance as an effective market-based strategy to protect poor and vulnerable groups who do not benefit from participation in formal social security systems.  Such market-based approaches aim to extend the scope and coverage of social protection programmes and support micro-insurance schemes to cover various risks such as health insurance, crops, livestock and even life insurance, with the possibility to lower transaction costs particularly when there is a closer collaboration with the target community and beneficiaries.

Today, we will hear about experiences of other countries including Ethiopia, Ghana, the Philippines, Vietnam and India, that will show us how a well designed and comphrensive microinsurance schemes could contribute to the promotion of Social Protection for the poor and vulnerable.

Micro-insurance has the potential to channel resources to where they are needed most. Promotion of microinsurance requires careful planning and learning from experiences of other countries, while recognising of course that micro-insurance schemes are still in their infancy across the developing world and that the design of an appropriate regulatory framework and a nurturing environment for the sector to develop would be equally critical for the success of such schemes in Cambodia.  

UNDP is committed to support the Royal Government of Cambodia in the implementation of the National Social Protection Strategy. As part of this process, the potential of micro-insurance needs to be examined as means of expanding social protection to the poor and the vulnerable in Cambodia in an evidence-based manner.

This opportunity needs to be explored through a well designed, integrated and phased approach, using experiences from other countries and sectors and retaining a space to adjust the approach in the course of learning by doing.

UNDP and UNCDF are working closely with the government to support progress in this area, and this workshop will, we hope, move us all forward in the implementation of the NSPS, towards better social protection, with more funding, wider coverage and consolidation, increased health spending and overall more robust and extensive social insurance programmes.

Microinsurance holds promise as an effective tool to deepen and expand social protection in Cambodia, enabling the poor and vulnerable to better cope with shocks and stresses.

I hope our discussions today will be engaging and practical and lead to some realistic strategies going forward in this area, which is so important for Cambodia’s inclusive growth.

In conclusion, I would like to take special note of a broad cross-section of sectors, institutions and partner organizations that are represented here today, and to thank CARD and MEF for playingthe lead role in this initiative. It is very encouraging to see with us today participants from several sectors of the government, NGOs, microfinance and micro-insurance institutions, UN agencies and development partner organizations. Such wide interest and interlinkages is the best testimony to the importance of close collaboration in helping micro-insurance to use market-based benefits for serving the needs of the most vulnerable and poor.

Finally, I would like to welcome and thank our resource persons who travel from abroad to facilitate our discussion today, including consultant Mayur Ankolekar, UNCDF senior regional advisor Feiral Mussain and Regional Policy Specialist from UNDP Center for Asia/Pacific Biplove Choudhary. I look forward to interesting discussion and wish all participants the best of success.


Thank you.
Orkun Charan.