It's been a while since I've posted. Moving to Fiji, settling into the new job, trying to push microinsurance (MI) in Fiji, are the excuses I (know i shouldn't but do) use.
Giving that I'm based in Fiji, I thought it would be good to share some facts and figures on the country that are relevant to MI here. So here we go:
What does Fiji look like? Well it is an archipelago located in the South Pacific Ocean, roughly 2000 km northeast of New Zealand’s North Island. The two main islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, where the vast majority of the population lie.
However, when you look at population split by Urban and Rural, you can see that the rural population is far more spread out across provinces than the Urban. This means that access microinsurance clients in rural areas will be logistically challenging, not to mention all the other challenges of microinsurance (client education, good product development, marketing ..etc.)
It's GDP has bobbed up and down over the last 10 years and it's GDP per capita still lags behind many other pacific islands and developed nations. Thus the people generally have low levels of income, are vulnerable and so there is an argument for MI:
Fiji is multi-ethnic with indigenous Fijians now accounting for 57% of the population and Indo-Fijians about 38 percent. The remaining Fijians are Europeans and people of mixed Fijian-European ancestry, Chinese, Pacific Islanders, and others. There has however been high emigration from Fiji in recent years, mainly in the Indo-Fijian ethnicity.
To sum up:
Fiji is a load of islands, with a diverse population (outside of urban areas) spread all over the place, who have low levels of income! For MI this represents a challenge.
But! There is one thing that is worth mentioning that makes Fiji a great place to work towards developing good MI products: The people here are quite simply joyous. There are many trates of the Fijian people I could rattle off here, however I will just list my favourite:
I have never been in a place before where the people are so quick to laugh. They laugh all the time. Good morning, good day, good evening, you end up laughing. Go to the cinema... Oh my - you get raucous laughter (even when you really aren't supposed to!). You end up joining in! To quote Mark Twain, against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. Never has this been so true as in Fiji. And that is why this is a great place to work. The laughter is everywhere, joyous, it's infectious. And what better people to work with, for and in aid of then people who laugh?
Giving that I'm based in Fiji, I thought it would be good to share some facts and figures on the country that are relevant to MI here. So here we go:
What does Fiji look like? Well it is an archipelago located in the South Pacific Ocean, roughly
It's GDP has bobbed up and down over the last 10 years and it's GDP per capita still lags behind many other pacific islands and developed nations. Thus the people generally have low levels of income, are vulnerable and so there is an argument for MI:
Fiji is multi-ethnic with indigenous Fijians now accounting for 57% of the population and Indo-Fijians about 38 percent. The remaining Fijians are Europeans and people of mixed Fijian-European ancestry, Chinese, Pacific Islanders, and others. There has however been high emigration from Fiji in recent years, mainly in the Indo-Fijian ethnicity.
To sum up:
Fiji is a load of islands, with a diverse population (outside of urban areas) spread all over the place, who have low levels of income! For MI this represents a challenge.
But! There is one thing that is worth mentioning that makes Fiji a great place to work towards developing good MI products: The people here are quite simply joyous. There are many trates of the Fijian people I could rattle off here, however I will just list my favourite:
I have never been in a place before where the people are so quick to laugh. They laugh all the time. Good morning, good day, good evening, you end up laughing. Go to the cinema... Oh my - you get raucous laughter (even when you really aren't supposed to!). You end up joining in! To quote Mark Twain, against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. Never has this been so true as in Fiji. And that is why this is a great place to work. The laughter is everywhere, joyous, it's infectious. And what better people to work with, for and in aid of then people who laugh?
