A Guide to Serving Women Customers
IFC’s SheforShield report found that if the insurance industry was to target women as customers, it could earn up to US$1.7 trillion by 2030—with half of this amount coming from emerging economies. While the business case for insuring women has been clearly demonstrated, women remain more vulnerable to shocks and crises, and insurers can do more to close gender gaps and inequities.
This guide provides insurers with a six-step roadmap to build their own women’s market strategy. The steps in this guide are informed by learnings from IFC’s Women’s Insurance Program and the ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility, both of which work with the private sector to create sustainable women’s insurance markets across emerging economies. IFC and the ILO work with insurers and other stakeholders to advance the economic inclusion of women, thereby strengthening the prosperity and livelihoods for them and their families as well as contributing to the development of a strong private sector.
This note is one of many case studies and papers issued by IFC and ILO, and highlights, simple, concrete steps that insurers can take to foster economic inclusion and the empowerment of women. Lessons and case studies are drawn from experience obtained through the In4Women Community of Practice (CoP), jointly created by IFC and ILO to spur innovation, promote best practices and encourage peer learning.
Better serving the needs of women will not only enable insurers to grow their business in this valuable market segment, but will also support the creation of sustainable, equitable, and resilient markets.
IFC's tools to create a successful Women’s Insurance Program
- T.1.1. IFC’s Sex Disaggregated Data Workbook
- T1.2. Example of Portfolio Analysis
- T4.1. Terms of Reference for Market Research
- T4.2. IFC's Market Research Framework
- T4.5. IFC’s Focus Group Discussion Guide
- T5.1. IFC’s Stakeholder Mapping Framework
- T7.1 Strategy & Action Planning Template Example
- T9.1 Business Model Canvas
- T9.2 IFC’s User Testing Script
- T10.1 Project Governance Framework
- T10.2 IFC’s Program Critical Success Factors
- T10.3 IFC’s Roles & Responsibilities Document
- T12.1 IFC’s Gender Sensitivity Training
- T17.1 IFC’s Guidance for Developing Women’s Market Campaigns
- T18.1 IFC’s KPI Dashboard
