European Microfinance Award 2025
From: Ekhosuehi Iyahen, Secretary General, Insurance Development Forum (IDF)
Opening
Good evening,
- Ms Gelsomina Vigliotti, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank
- Your excellencies, and
- Honourable guests
It is a privilege and an absolute honour to be with you this evening at the European Investment Bank, to celebrate the 16th edition of the European Microfinance Award — a platform that has established itself as a beacon of innovation, purpose, and the relentless drive to make finance a force for inclusion.
I would like to thank Minister Bettel for his remarks and the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs for its investment in development and cooperation and unwavering support in advancing the global inclusive finance agenda. I also commend the other organisers — e-MFP, InFiNe – the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg, and, for the first time this year, the Microinsurance Network — for their continued dedication to making inclusive finance not just an aspiration, but a lived reality for millions around the world.
As Secretary General of the Insurance Development Forum, I am inspired by how this year’s Award mirrors our shared ambition: to make protection and resilience accessible to all: Building Resilience through Inclusive Insurance.
The Human Story of Risk and Resilience
Taking a step back to unpack this, I am reminded — as the Minister highlighted — that behind every statistic about poverty, disaster, or vulnerability, lies a human story — showing that risk is lived, not theoretical.
There is a story of a mother rebuilding after a flood, a farmer planting again after drought, a small business owner recovering from illness.
Each of these stories carries a common thread: risk.
For the world’s most vulnerable, risk is not an abstract economic concept. It is a daily companion.
It determines whether a child goes to school, whether a family keeps their home, or whether a community thrives after a crisis.
And yet, risk itself can also be transformed — from a source of fragility into a foundation for resilience — BUT ONLY when we have the right tools to manage it.
That is what inclusive insurance is about and offers: ensuring that the protection we take for granted is extended to everyone, everywhere.
The Urgency of Inclusive Insurance
The past few years have reminded us — starkly — that the world is interconnected and fragile.
From climate change and pandemics to geopolitical instability and economic shocks. No country or community is immune.
But while risks are shared, the sobering truth is that their impacts are not.
For low-income households, for micro and small enterprises, and for communities already living on the edge, these shocks can erase years — even decades — of progress.
Insurance, when inclusive and accessible, is a cornerstone of resilience.
It can be the bridge between vulnerability and stability — helping people rebuild after loss, helping governments recover faster, and helping societies sustain momentum toward sustainable development.
Yet today, the protection gap remains vast.
Billions of people are still uninsured or underinsured. According to the Landscape of Microinsurance produced by the MiN, only 12% of the target population for inclusive insurance is currently covered.
As 2024 becomes the first year to exceed 1.5°C warming above pre-industrial levels, climate impacts are escalating faster than our systems can respond, and only an estimated 40% of natural catastrophe losses are insured globally, and we know the share is far lower in the developing world.
That is why the work celebrated tonight is so critical.
Because you — the organisations and innovators gathered here — are demonstrating that inclusive insurance is not just possible, but powerful and ever relevant.
From Protection to Empowerment
Inclusive insurance is about more than paying claims after disasters – inclusive insurance extends the protection many take for granted to everyone, everywhere. It is about enabling people to take control of their future, and I will dare to go a step further and say – create and build the future and all the possibilities that this entails.
When smallholder farmers are insured, they can access credit and invest in better seeds.
When health microinsurance is available, families can seek care early, without falling into debt.
When disaster risk insurance is integrated into public policy, governments can respond with speed and dignity.
Across these examples runs a common thread: insurance unlocks opportunity. In this way, insurance becomes a platform for empowerment, not dependency.
At the Insurance Development Forum, we often say that insurance is not simply a financial instrument — it is a social good.
It is a critical bridge that transforms uncertainty into opportunity, fear into foresight, and vulnerability into agency.
But to achieve this at scale, we must continue to innovate — to meet people where they are, understand their realities, and co-design solutions that are affordable, trusted, and truly inclusive.
Partnership and Collective Action
The journey toward inclusive insurance is one we cannot walk alone and it is not easy precisely because the challenge is complex.
It demands partnerships — between governments, development institutions, insurers, technology providers, and, most importantly, the communities we serve.
Luxembourg’s leadership, through initiatives like this Award and its broader support for inclusive finance, is a testament to what such collaboration can achieve.
Globally, through platforms like the Insurance Development Forum and the MicroInsurance Network, we are working to integrate insurance into development and climate strategies — ensuring that finance, policy, and protection move hand in hand.
Because resilience is not built by one actor or one intervention — it is built through systems that connect, policies that enable, and people who believe that inclusion is not optional, but essential.
Celebrating Innovation and Hope
Tonight is especially meaningful because we celebrate organisations that have turned that belief into action — organisations who have reached those often and so easily left behind, and who have proven that insurance can be a tool for dignity, not charity.
Your innovations — from index-based products and community-based schemes to digital platforms and parametric solutions — are redefining what is possible.
Your achievements remind us that innovation, guided by inclusion, is the most powerful form of hope.
Closing
To conclude, as we gather here in Luxembourg — a small country with a large vision — let us remember that resilience is not the absence of shocks, but the capacity to recover, to adapt, and to grow stronger.
As we honour tonight’s laureates, let us reaffirm our shared purpose: to close the protection gap, to build systems that serve everyone, and to ensure that resilience becomes universal. Together, we can build a world where insurance is not a privilege but a promise – a promise that helps nations be future-ready, today and tomorrow.
Together, we can build a world where resilience is truly universal — and where insurance is not a privilege, but a promise – for today and tomorrow.
Thank you.
