Too Small to Cover? Rethinking Inclusive Life and Health Insurance for Entrepreneurs in Brazil and Indonesia

Drawing on original research with over 1,600 MSEs in São Paulo and Jakarta, this report explores how MSE owners perceive, use, and experience insurance, providing recommendations for inclusive insurance providers to consider as they build insurance markets that serve MSEs.

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AUTHORS

Edoardo Totolo, Anindita Chakraborty, Gillous Harris, Paul Gubbins

Topics

Regions

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) form the backbone of emerging economies, but they are exposed to multiple risks that impact their livelihoods and resilience. These include frequent exposure to health emergencies, climate shocks, inflation, and crime. Most MSEs have no reliable way to manage these shocks. Given the limited separation between business and household finances, exposure to shocks also adversely impacts household well-being. While many rely on savings, credit, and informal networks, the financial support provided is often inadequate for helping MSEs to strengthen resilience and prosper. Insurance, particularly life and health coverage, remains a vital missing piece in the financial lives of millions of entrepreneurs.

Despite their transformative potential, life and health insurance continue to be overlooked in development and financial inclusion agendas. A 2022 review of 63 national financial inclusion strategies found that fewer than half mentioned insurance, and even fewer included concrete plans to expand coverage for life and health. While credit and savings dominate policy and provider attention, insurance continues to lag as an underfunded, under-researched, and underutilized area.

This study draws from interviews with 1,600 MSEs and demonstrates the potential of well-designed, inclusive insurance products, particularly life and health insurance, to strengthen resilience among entrepreneurs. Our findings underscore that insurance is not just a safety net; when well designed, it becomes a tool for confidence, continuity, and better decision making, enabling entrepreneurs to take calculated risks, protect their families, and plan for the future.

This report was developed with support from Swiss Re. Swiss Re is one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, insurance, and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, helping to make the world more resilient.

Authors

Edoardo Totolo

Deputy Managing Director

Edoardo oversees CFI’s thought leadership in the thematic areas of financial consumer protection, responsible data practices, and green inclusive finance.

Prior to joining CFI, Edoardo worked for IFC’s venture capital team in Washington, D.C., where he promoted enabling environments and investment opportunities in embedded finance, startup ecosystems, and the digital economy. He also worked for the World Bank’s global financial inclusion unit, assisting regulators in leveraging data and developing strategies for financial inclusion and consumer protection. Between 2012 and 2018, Edoardo worked in Kenya as Research Economist for Financial Sector Deepening Kenya, a multi-donor program supporting the development of inclusive financial markets. He led flagship nationally representative surveys and provided fintech companies with advanced analytical tools for consumer insights and segmentation.

Edoardo holds a PhD in development economics from the University of Trento and an MSc in international development studies from the University of Amsterdam.

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Anindita Chakraborty

Senior Manager, Research and Strategy

Anindita is an inclusive finance specialist with eleven years of experience undertaking research, ratings, client protection certifications, program implementation, training, and evaluation across multiple countries in Asia and Africa. She works closely with CFI’s Managing Director and leadership team on fundraising, operationalizing CFI’s strategy, internal knowledge management, and organizational processes.

Before joining CFI in October 2020, Anindita worked as an evidence and insights fellow at the UN Foundation’s Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), where she helped develop a category management guide to enable developing country governments to strategically procure digital technologies. Anindita has worked for several financial inclusion organizations, including Dvara Finance, M-CRIL LLP, and Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (now LenddoEFL). While working as the partner success manager at Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, she helped financial institutions in India and Nepal adopt psychometric credit scoring to safely accelerate lending to low-income households and enterprises.

Anindita graduated from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) with an MPA in economic and political development. She also holds a post-graduate degree in management from the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and an undergraduate degree in information technology from the Institute of Engineering and Management (IEM). Anindita is fluent in English, Bengali, and Hindi.

Gillous Harris

Research Specialist

As a research specialist, Gillous contributes to CFI’s research and policy work by generating insights, communicating insights for impact, managing programs, and influencing organizational culture.

Gillous joins CFI from FinRegLab, where he conducted research to advance inclusion in lending, payments, and KYC practices. At FinRegLab, Gillous worked on and managed several research projects, drafted and reviewed policy reports and communications, and convened stakeholders to maximize the impact of policy research.

Gillous is from Blacksburg, Virginia, and he received his BA in International Relations and History from William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He completed his MA in International Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he studied in both Washington, D.C. and Bologna, Italy.

Gillous enjoys spending free time with his dog Villa (a black and tan coonhound), hiking, and playing pickup basketball. He loves to try new things, whether it’s food, traveling to new places, or learning something new.

Paul Gubbins

Independent Consultant

Paul Gubbins is an independent consultant providing support to organizations tackling development challenges with applied research and data analysis. Paul is currently focused on developing survey-based measures of financial health and using remote sensing data and geospatial approaches to support research in financial inclusion. Paul was a former research lead at FSD Kenya’s Center for Consumer Insights in Financial Inclusion and a poverty and inequality researcher at the World Bank in Kenya.