POST:Micro Insurance Fellow

Microinsurance Innovation Facility
Location: Dar el Salam, Tanzania
Last Date: January 25, 2010
Email: ryan.lynch@microinsuranceagency.com


Application Deadline: 25th of January 2010
Fellowship Start Date: 1st of March 2010
Location: Dar el Salam, Tanzania
Duration: 12 months

The Microinsurance Innovation Facility, established by the International
Labour Organization (ILO) with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, promotes decent work by facilitating the emergence of valuable insurance coverage to protect the working poor in developing countries. Over the period of 2008 to 2012, the Facility is engaging in four sets of activities:

Offer innovation grants to stimulate new ideas and test new approaches to
providing better insurance products to un- and under- served markets;
Create a market for microinsurance technical assistance (TA) by supporting the development of TA providers while at the same time co-financing the demand;
Conduct research to identify models of success and analyze the impact that insurance has on the ability of poor men and women to manage risks; and Disseminate lessons learned among key stakeholders.

The Microinsurance Fellowship Programme is part of our Technical
Assistance activities.

Introduction
To build a new cadre of TA providers, fellowships will be offered to selected professionals with relevant background and experience who want to contribute to a host microinsurance scheme on a long-term assignment under the guidance of a TA mentor. Fellows funded by the Microinsurance Innovation Facility are typically professionals with substantial experience in the insurance industry. Although they have a desire to use their expertise for the furtherance of microinsurance, they have limited exposure to the lowincome
market. Through the Fellowship Programme, a fellow can provide
insurance expertise while learning to adapt that expertise to the low-income market for the benefit of the host organization.

The fellow will provide structural enhancement to the host organization, rather than simply one-off technical assistance. The host organization is expected to be in a much stronger and operationally sustainable position at the conclusion of the fellowship.

Success of the fellowship will be based on the achievement of both:
· significantly improved capacity of the fellow to provide
microinsurance technical assistance; and
· significantly improved capacity of the host organization due to the
institutionalization of the skills provided by the fellow.

Description of Duties

Overview
MicroEnsure is the world’s first, and largest, insurance intermediary focused solely on providing microinsurance products to the world’s poor. Since the beginning of 2008, MicroEnsure has placed an emphasis on health insurance thru the utilization of a sophisticated third party administration (TPA) function in activities in India. Having proved this model successfully through provision and servicing of over existing 40,000 clients in India, MicroEnsure is now taking this unique approach to Africa thru a partnership with the Anglican Health Network. With expertise in health financing at MicroEnsure’s global leadership level, MicroEnsure requires a Tanzanian - based resource to become ground-engaged to finalize the health assessment
and then develop the health insurance product, operations and marketing program for a pilot launch by July 2010. Once the pilot is launched, daily oversight, process improvement, and management of all key stakeholders will be necessary.

Company Description
MicroEnsure provides microinsurance products in five countries currently across 475,000+ policies that covers over 3.5 million lives. Live operations exist in Ghana, India, Philippines, Tanzania and Uganda with fledgling offices begun in Kenya and Indonesia in 2009. Further growth plans include expansion into more countries in 2010-2012. Enabled by a proven, sustainable business model, low-cost/process-focused IT infrastructure, innovative products, and unique distribution models and partners, MicroEnsure has experienced rapid growth since its inception in 2002 and incorporation in 2005.

While MicroEnsure participated in the initial growth of micro insurance via life and credit life products, MicroEnsure has also moved rapidly into the development of the products and infrastructure necessary to delivery higher value-add services to the poor such as agriculture and health insurance. This is in line with academic learning globally as well as what MicroEnsure’s target market has been clamoring for as a requirement to lift their families from
poverty. In addition, MicroEnsure is innovating with unique distribution partners such as the Anglican Health Network to penetrate the target market more fully by meeting the poor where they live and work. Through innovation of both product (agriculture and health) and distribution method (beyond the MFI), MicroEnsure is poised to continue its rapid growth into the next decade.

Job Description
In the health financing space, MicroEnsure’s current plan is to take its blueprint for health insurance success (at product, distribution, and tructure levels) in India and replicate it in Tanzania. This will require a full health assessment (which MicroEnsure has begun) and then tailoring our product and operations model to provide an appropriate, contextualized solution for the Tanzania market that takes into consideration affordability, customers’ needs, health provider capabilities, etc. The fellow’s work will be
executed in three phases. The first phase will be to complete the health assessment in Dar es Salaam that MicroEnsure has already begun. The second stage will be focused on developing the product, the sales process, the provider network and the operations (health care management) model through partial replication of MicroEnsure’s India program. This will require a large amount of work with MicroEnsure’s third party administration partner, local providers, MicroEnsure management, and the Anglican health/local teams. The third stage will involve (1) rolling out the pilot program to 36 parishes in Dar, (2) assisting the local team and TPA in daily
management of the program, and (3) executing a robust monitoring and
evaluation program. This is a one year position with possibility of future opportunities based on performance and expected growth of MicroEnsure’s health operations.

Outputs:
Stage 1 – Finalize Country Health Assessment ( 2 months)
· Provider assessment of cost structures, capabilities, locations, etc.
· Country health assessment of target market’s disease prevalence,
out-of-pocket expenditures, current level of care, etc
· Target market assessment of willingness-to-pay, income/expenditure
index, affordability, interest level in health financing, identified
health care needs, etc.

Stage 2 – Development of Health Product, Operations and Marketing
Program (4 months)
· Product developed in partnership with MicroEnsure staff and
underwriter partners.
· Operations (business processes) developed in partnership with
MicroEnsure Head Office staff and the Anglican Health Network
(AHN).
· Provider network delivered through management of MicroEnsure’s
third party administration partner who will execute this program
component.
· Marketing, training and sales program developed with AHN and local
staff.
· Monitoring and evaluation developed for pre and post launch - to
include health, service, financial, consumer interest indicators.

Stage 3 – Rollout, Management and M&E (6 months)
· Manage the execution of the sales and policy enrollment processes
through the Anglican church partners
· Assist in daily management of Anglican health program after launch,
this could include:
o Direct communication/monitoring/management of the
services provided by health service providers
o Managing other MicroEnsure associates executing the
program operationally across provider management,
customer care, enrollment, and claims management
o Interfacing with the possible TPA partner to ensure proper
program management
o Interfacing with the Anglican church leaders to ensure
smooth program adoption, execution and health member
understanding
o Interfacing with the underwriter as necessary
· Execution of monitoring and evaluation program through health
service providers, the TPA and Anglican partners
· Health assessment of rural Tanzanian markets
· Recommendation and program plan for scaling pilot across Tanzania

Required Qualifications
· Education: Health care professional (MD or nurse), public health
masters or health management degree preferred, a business
marketing/management degree would also be a plus
· Experience: 5+ years of experience managing or implementing
health care programs, with a focus on health financing, in either
public or private contexts. Work setting up micro health initiatives
(mutuals, insurance programs, etc) a plus.
· Language skills: Ability to communicate fluently in both written and
spoken English a requirement. High competency understanding and
speaking swahili a plus.
· Computer skills: Strong aptitude in Microsoft Word and Excel with
demonstrated ability to create professional documents.
· Insurance product understanding: Ability to work with
underwriters, providers and health indicator data to create health
insurance products a plus.
· Ground engagement with the poor: A large part of this role will be
to communicate and understand the lives of the lowest income
markets in Tanzania. Ability to develop replicable sales, marketing
and training materials for the health program is critical.
· Entrepreneurial: This program is highly innovative and is being
developed from the ground up. Candidate must be interested in
developing and then rolling out all facets of a comprehensive health
insurance program.

Key learning to be gain by the Fellow
1. An understanding of how low–income groups prefer to manage risks.
2. Unique opportunity to see where classroom learning and ground realities come together and how to overcome obstacles (such as poor data or difficulties educating customers) to succeed in reaching the poorest groups.
3. Responsibility to launch an innovative new product (micro health in
Tanzania) through a unique distribution channel (parishes).

Financial support
The fellow will be provided funds to cover the round trip airfare to and from the host site. The fellow will also receive a standard medical coverage and a monthly stipend for the duration of the fellowship. The amount of the monthly stipend is based on the country in which the fellow will be stationed.

To apply
Interested candidates can send their CVs and cover letter in an email to ryan.lynch@microinsuranceagency.com.