“…To combat these risks, they have traditionally used risk pooling (for instance funeral and burial societies), income support (for instance credit arrangements and transfers) and informal insurance or risk-sharing schemes such as grain storage, savings, asset accumulation and loans from friends and relatives (Bhattamishra & Barrett, 2008;Tadesse & Brans, 2012). However, the prevalent forms of risk management (in kind savings, self-insurance, mutual insurance) which were appropriate earlier are no longer adequate and feasible (Pierro & Desai, 2007;Giesbert & Steiner, 2012) as they are limited in outreach and the benefits typically cover a small portion of the loss (Churchill, 2006), offer limited protection, low returns for households, and are prone to breakdown during emergencies (Bhattamishra & Barrett, 2008). Formal insurance instruments can offer superior risk management alternatives, provided poor households can access these services (Maleika & Kuriakose, 2008).…”