AKF/Bill Gates

[sheinaz]

AGA KHAN FOUNDATION U.S.A.

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION AWARDS GRANT
TO AGA KHAN FOUNDATION U.S.A. FOR AN
INITIATIVE IN MICROINSURANCE

Five-year grant will focus on > microinsurance for the
poor in Pakistan and Tanzania

Washington, DC, January 17, 2006

The Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation has awarded a grant of $5.5 million to Aga Khan Foundation
U.S.A.

(AKF USA) for a microinsurance initiative in Pakistan and Tanzania. The
five-year initiative aims to improve the economic stability of
microentrepreneurs and other poor families by decreasing their >
vulnerability to loss of savings and income as a result of catastrophic events such as long-term hospitalization, business or crop loss, or death of the head of household. The initiative intends to develop a model for the provision of > microinsurance that will be viable and financially sustainable in multiple socio-economic and cultural contexts.

AKF USA will work with the Aga Khan > Agency for
Microfinance (AKAM) in implementing activities, first in Pakistan, where
the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) has well-established institutions and a long history of innovation in financial services, insurance, social development and poverty reduction. In 2007, AKAM will begin program activities in Tanzania, where AKDN has also had a long-term presence.

The initiative is designed to create a > replicable
model for extending and deepening the impact of microfinance by > providing affordable, comprehensive insurance products to poor and very poor microfinance clients. It offers the opportunity to test how microinsurance services could become a powerful and cost-effective tool complementing micro-lending and savings.

The program will bring together > high-level
international expertise, market research, pilot studies and the use of >
modern technology to demonstrate how microinsurance services can be delivered to the poor cost-effectively. AKF USA will also work jointly with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to disseminate learning about the impact of microinsurance services on the poor and very poor.