(including links to papers and resources mentioned in the webinar)
The European Microfinance Award 2021, is on ‘Inclusive Finance and Health Care’ – a complex, fascinating and challenging topic that has never been more relevant than today. “The first wealth is health,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, meaning that without health, there can be no wealth – no security or prosperity.
How true that is. For the poor, health is often the dividing line between the path to prosperity or a slide into destitution. Volatile and precarious incomes, combined with poor or non-existent universal health care systems means that low-income communities not only need access to health care, but also the ability to pay for it.
The European Microfinance Award is more than just the evaluation of applicant organisations and rewarding an outstanding winner. It is also an opportunity to more broadly raise awareness of how the financial inclusion sector can play a relevant role to facilitate access to health care among vulnerable populations.
On 26th May, e-MFP hosted a webinar which presented the current health care landscape, including the needs of low-income households and the costs they must bear to access health care, the role of different financial products such as insurance as well as crucial non-financial support, the particular health care needs of women, and the roles that financial services providers can play to address this enormous challenge.
We were extremely pleased to welcome Bobbi Gray, Research Director at Grameen Foundation, to lead the webinar, and she was joined by Lisa Morgan, Technical Officer at ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility; Peter Wrede, a senior consultant with years of field experience, especially in health insurance; Barbara Magnoni, President of EA Consultants; and Shams Azad, Chief Operating Officer at BRAC Microfinance.
Together, this outstanding panel of experts talked about the fundamental challenges to be addressed, where innovation in facilitating access to affordable health care is to be found, where it is needed, and who is well placed to do it.
(including links to papers and resources mentioned in the webinar)
Watch the recording
Webinar presentation
(including links to papers and resources mentioned in the webinar)
The European Microfinance Award 2021, is on ‘Inclusive Finance and Health Care’ – a complex, fascinating and challenging topic that has never been more relevant than today. “The first wealth is health,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, meaning that without health, there can be no wealth – no security or prosperity.
How true that is. For the poor, health is often the dividing line between the path to prosperity or a slide into destitution. Volatile and precarious incomes, combined with poor or non-existent universal health care systems means that low-income communities not only need access to health care, but also the ability to pay for it.
The European Microfinance Award is more than just the evaluation of applicant organisations and rewarding an outstanding winner. It is also an opportunity to more broadly raise awareness of how the financial inclusion sector can play a relevant role to facilitate access to health care among vulnerable populations.
On 26th May, e-MFP hosted a webinar which presented the current health care landscape, including the needs of low-income households and the costs they must bear to access health care, the role of different financial products such as insurance as well as crucial non-financial support, the particular health care needs of women, and the roles that financial services providers can play to address this enormous challenge.
We were extremely pleased to welcome Bobbi Gray, Research Director at Grameen Foundation, to lead the webinar, and she was joined by Lisa Morgan, Technical Officer at ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility; Peter Wrede, a senior consultant with years of field experience, especially in health insurance; Barbara Magnoni, President of EA Consultants; and Shams Azad, Chief Operating Officer at BRAC Microfinance.
Together, this outstanding panel of experts talked about the fundamental challenges to be addressed, where innovation in facilitating access to affordable health care is to be found, where it is needed, and who is well placed to do it.
Watch the recording
Webinar presentation
(including links to papers and resources mentioned in the webinar)