Shockwatch - Savings and insurance
This project will investigate the link between global financial vulnerability and the financial products made available to the poor, with particular focus on savings and insurance products. It will also explore whether and how these financial products can indeed build the resilience of the poorest people to a range of shocks, including economic and non-economic shocks.
The focus will be on forms of insurance for the loss of property, crops or livestock (and so excludes health and life insurance, which are separate insurance markets) along with mechanisms for savings. It will incorporate both a global overview and a focus on two national contexts; Nigeria and Tanzania.
The key research questions are:
- What savings and insurance products are currently used by poor people and how has the global economic crisis influenced these products and their access?
- What are the main challenges to including the poorest within existing products?
- How could savings and insurance schemes be better designed to build the resilience of the poorest people?
- To what extent are the poorest people incorporated into savings and insurance products in the two case study countries and has this improved their resilience to different types of shock?
Staff
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Andrew Shepherd
Principal Research Fellow
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Chiara Mariotti
Research Officer
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Lucy Scott
Research Fellow