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What does MIAN do?
MIAN is an organization of enthusiastic volunteers who work on the basis of a mission. That mission is:
We help to improve the living conditions of our target group in developing countries by making risks manageable and by providing instruments that give people in the target group access to insuring or financing those risks.
This mission is fulfilled by making use of the knowledge and experience of professionals, either on-site or from the Netherlands. MIAN never operates independently. Usually, we join in with existing activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the countries themselves, which in turn are supported by Dutch financiers of development projects. The introduction of micro-insurance almost always takes place after the target group has become accustomed to micro-finance. There is not much point in talking about insurance if the people have not yet heard of savings and loans.
MIAN’s activities include: keeping in touch with the NGO on-site and with the Dutch donor, as well as: professional support for matters such as risk analysis, drawing up policies and policy wordings, fixing premiums, pay-out policy, the management of funds and the arrangement of the administrative records. The MIAN volunteers also pay a lot of attention to information for the local populace and training of the local staff. It is very important that the people themselves start to run their own mutual insurance company. As soon as the organization is running well and sufficient reserves have been built up, MIAN will withdraw from the project.
By now, MIAN is active in a many different developing countries. Projects have been completed or are still underway in countries like India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nepal, Cambodia and Uganda. There is growing interest, too, from other countries. Our activities are getting more and more support from within the Netherlands, partly thanks to the efforts of Princess Maxima in promoting micro-credit and to the Nobel Prize for peace in 2006 being awarded to the ‘inventor’ of micro-credit, Mohammed Yunus.
