Women's Finance House Association (WFHB) is a micro finance institution that assists low-income women entrepreneurs by provision of credits, saving possibilities and training services enabling them to participate in economic activities. WFHB was founded in 1989 and is located in 14 villages in Botswana. Currently the Women’s Association counts 3.446 predominantly young members in the twenties. Main working areas are micro credit, micro savings and furthermore training of members in management and entrepreneurship. Health care financing services are not yet part of the portfolio but WFHB is interested in offering micro health insurance products for the members in near future. The cooperation with Pro MHI Africa will provide necessary information on demand of health insurance products as well as frequency and costs of certain illnesses.

The WEST GONJA Mutual Health Insurance Scheme started as Community Financing Health Insurance Scheme in October 1995. It was an initiative of the Catholic Church to answer the financial difficulties in access to health care delivery. This was relevant in a predominantly poor and rural farming environment, and  benefits applied to only in-patients at the West Gonja Hospital. The health insurance component was also highly relevant to the hospitals to ensure the payment for services. It was the second such pro-poor arrangement in the country after the Nkoranza initiative (1992) in the Brong Ahafo Region. The West Gonja Community Financing Health Insurance Scheme was mandated by the government of Ghana to implement the emerging National Health Insurance Scheme for the District in June 2003. The scheme has since been operating as a district-wide mutual health insurance scheme, with reviewed structures and mandate to conform to the national policy directives. In December 2008 about 50.500 members were counted representing roughly 50% of the target population.

• For further information please visit: www.nhis.gov.gh

The Dangme Hewaminami Kpe (DHK) Health Insurance Scheme, in English, ‘A good health association’, is located in the Greater Accra region. Farming, trading and fishing are the most important occupations in the Dangme West district, which has a population of about 100,000 people. Having started its operation as mutual health organisation in 2000, the scheme became one of the district mutual health insurance schemes under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) of Ghana in 2005. At the end of 2008, the scheme covered more than 40,000 members.

• For further information please visit: www.nhis.gov.gh

MUSCCO stands for the Malawi Union of Saving and Credit Cooperatives and has its head office in the capital city Lilongwe in the Central region of Malawi. MUSCCO’s main focus is on enhancing saving culture and providing credit to groups of individuals who are usually organised in farmer clubs with populations of 10 to 15 individuals or Saving and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs). Loans ranging from 50€ to 5000€ are dispensed to the groups. Operations of these beneficiary groups are spread throughout Malawi. At the moment MUSCCO only provides a group insurance cover the death of a SACCO member. However, what makes MUSCCO an attractive partner for Pro MHI Africa is the fact that beyond the saving and credit scheme, the institution is designing a package that will include micro health insurance which no other micro finance organization is offering in Malawi. On this basis, MUSCCO was chosen and agreed to be part of the study that seeks to understand the important factors and dynamics in micro health insurance.

• For further information please visit: www.muscco.org.mw

FINCA is the Foundation for International Assistance. The Malawi office is headed in Blantyre, in the Southern Region. FINCA offers micro savings and micro credit inculding individual loans and group based loans. Groups operating under FINCA have a minimum membership of 15 individuals. The core business of FINCA Malawi is micro finance, what has made it necessary for them to be brought on board in this study. They have a very wide base of clientele in the first place and further to that the organization does offer micro insurance in other countries but not in Malawi. This makes it interesting to both the Pro-MHI team and FINCA Malawi to study the potential of micro health insurance in Malawi.

• For further information please visit: www.villagebanking.org