AIA Sri Lanka

AIA Insurance Lanka Limited (AIA Sri Lanka) is a key player in Sri Lanka’s life insurance industry and a subsidiary of AIA Group, the leading pan-Asian insurer headquartered in Hong Kong. On International Women’s Day in 2022, AIA Sri Lanka launched the ‘AYA Surakina AIA’ program. Translated from Sinhala, `AYA Surakina AIA' means `AIA Protecting Her'.  It was a first for the Sri Lankan market where insurance penetration rate remains low at less than 2 percent. The program aims to support and empower women across the country through targeted insurance products and services, financial literacy and skills-based training, and access to networks and information. AYA Surakina AIA Activ’Lady was co-created in partnership with IFC, and developed in line with the main recommendations of the SHEforSHIELD report, with the objective of increased access to insurance and job opportunities for Sri Lankan women in the insurance industry.

This case study explores how AIA Sri Lanka remained resilient and dedicated to becoming the preferred life insurer for women, at a time when addressing the gender protection gap was more needed than ever considering the IFC partnership started 7 months into the COVID-19 pandemic and Sri Lanka experienced one of its worst-ever economic crises soon after the program was launched. The successful implementation of similar programs in some other markets – Cameroon and Philippines, where insurers had worked with IFC to increase women’s access to insurance, served as motivation to progress with the program. AIA Sri Lanka has frequently been recognized as a great place to work for women and millennials and the IFC partnership helped the firm extend its focus to women as insurance customers, a segment AIA Sri Lanka had not keenly looked at previously while deepening its ongoing commitment towards hiring women as employees and agents.

According to IFC’s SHEforSHIELD report, the insurance industry could earn up to $1.7 trillion globally by 2030 if they focus on women alone, with 50 percent of this opportunity coming from emerging markets such as Sri Lanka.