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Covered! How informal youth workers in the gig economy can be insured

Posted on by MSC

Technology has the potential to increase employment rates amongst youth, especially in informal work. In 2019,  a report on Gig Economy estimated the size of the gig economy (access to work online) in Kenya at USD 109 million, employing over 36,000 workers. The report further states that based on the current investment the gig economy is witnessing, the sector is projected to grow by 32% in the next five years, to a value of USD 345 million and will employ over 93,000 workers. The informal sector in Kenya has consistently represented over 80% of the workforce. The use of technology provides a significant opportunity to offer jobs and employment to the informal sector.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has just outlined how vulnerable job and social security is for gig workers. CGAP reports that most workers on platforms, offering artisanal and personal services, are seeing up to 90% reduction of business for them. Most have had to dig into their savings, if any, to take care of their living expenses. Those without savings are finding it hard to cope with the lockdowns. Gig work also does not fall within the customary contractual structures and grievance mechanisms provided by traditional formal employment. Insurance, as an example, has traditionally targeted the formal sector. There are very few insurance companies that offer adequate and accessible products to gig workers. The nature of gig work makes offering insurance products to the gig workers much more difficult. Gig work varies significantly based on the technical platform, type of work, and risk exposure. Online gig workers are, in particular, more complicated to insure due to the on-demand and unpredictable nature of gig work.

Several gig platforms such as Lynk based in Kenya provide professional services through matching customers to a pool of blue-collar workers. Lynk has a focus on generating employment opportunities for youth and is on track to achieve this with over 60% of its workers in the youth category.  A large portion of their workforce, however, have inadequate access to insurance. Through support from the Mastercard Foundation, MSC supported the development and delivery of microinsurance products to serve gig workers. In our previous blog, we defined the platform economy and explored the challenges faced by gig workers. Poor and irregular pay, unstructured contracts or lack thereof, and unpredictable cash flows are some of the leading reasons that make gig workers a segment that is an ill fit for traditional insurance companies.

Mutiso, a carpenter who lacked health assistance when he needed  

Mutiso is a twenty-eight-year-old carpenter, who runs a furniture workshop on one of the busy roadsides in Nairobi. He joined Lynk as a pro, three years ago, upon recommendation from a friend. As his regular business had issues of seasonality, he envisaged that these gigs on the platform would lead him to regular customers and smoothen his cash flow.

Mutiso has been very careful with his work that involves dangerous tools to cut, shape, and build furniture. He rarely had an accident at work. However, two years ago, as he was sawing a large trunk of wood to make a table, he moved the log too fast, and the saw got to his hand. He cut half-way through his forearm. This injury put him out of work for six months. He had no source of income during the period and no health insurance. It cost him over KES 200,000 (USD 2,000) just for the hospital bill, and he had to rely on friends and family to be able to pay for his treatment.

How can we create microinsurance product concepts for gig workers and platforms?

Behavioral research and human-centered design can be applied to develop product concepts that are adequate, accessible, and meet the needs of the gig workers. Our research shows that most gig workers have no access to formal insurance, although they recognize and experience several risks. Also, our assessment shows that most traditional products provided by insurance companies are not adequate to serve the unique needs of the gig workers’ segment.

The core use cases of insurance for young gig worker included the following:

Developing microinsurance product concepts for gig workers

Based on our research, key insights to develop microinsurance product concepts for gig workers include:

  • The flexibility of the worker’s gigs: Gig workers would like to be able to afford a cover before they commence their gigs. Thus, the product should have an on-demand cover that the gig workers may pay for when carrying out gigs.
  • Incorporate the use of technology: Considering the tech-savvy nature of the youth gig workers and need for an efficient experience, providers must digitize and embed technology at each stage of service. Thus, the core processes such as enrollment, premium payment, and claim settlement should be digitized.
  • Affordable and dynamic pricing: Differential pricing and payment models could make it easier for the gig worker to afford the premiums. To reduce the cost of access to insurance, a liability sharing model where both the gig platform and the gig workers contribute towards the premium payment. The flexibility of gigs demands a dynamic pricing model where the gig workers may split and pay premium across the predicted number of gigs.

Developing a microinsurance model that works for gig workers

Based on our research, an insurance provider is piloting an umbrella personal accident product for the gig economy, to include the following attributes:

  • On-demand access: Together with the platform, the provider has assessed the overall platform’s insurance needs to develop and deliver an umbrella Personal Accident (PA) cover for all the gig workers associated with the platform. The cover is applicable during the working period and protects gig workers against all the risks associated with the gigs. The provider is offering work injury benefits to all the gig workers in line with existing labor regulations.
  • Pooled and agnostic: The pooled insurance product covers a specific and pre-determined number of workers at any given point of time. The number depends on the history of active daily workers on the platform but does not prescribe the specific individuals. This approach acknowledges that from the pool of the gig workers, not all of them will work on the same day or at the same time, and it is certain that not all workers are at risk every day. If only 400 out of 1,000 workers are active every day, the platform pre-pays insurance for only the daily active workers. Consequently, the premium paid per worker is significantly reduced.

Through behavioral and human-centered research, a provider may understand the dynamic nature of work, risks that affect them, and practical use cases, and may design effective microinsurance product concepts for gig platforms and workers. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to life the reality that informal workers unjustifiably get the short end of the stick concerning financial services and specifically insurance. Regardless of informal workers’ equitable and unappreciated contribution to the economy and society, our embrace of technology in the gig economy can indeed extend the benefits enjoyed by formal economy workers to the informal workers.

The abridged version of this blog was first released on NextBillion.

Helping MSMEs get back on their feet – Insights from MSMEs in the Philippines that have overcome disasters

Posted on by MSC

MSMEs are drivers of GDP and employment in all developing economies. The quicker we help them get back on their feet, the sooner we can end the economic misery that has befallen entrepreneurs and workers, especially those in the informal sector. The COVID-19 pandemic is a “grey swan” event, that is, it is a known unknown. It has no real precedent in terms of disruption at this scale, but we can find analogies in the aftermath of disasters and hazards, such as typhoons, floods, and tsunamis, to inform policy responses.

In 2018, MSC conducted a study with MSMEs in the Philippines to understand how they are affected by disasters. In the study, we assessed their coping mechanisms in the aftermath. The Philippines has historically been on the receiving end of disasters, such as typhoons and floods. MSMEs in the Philippines have had to respond to disruptions caused by these disasters, develop coping mechanisms, and work their way out of these challenges. In this blog, we will reiterate insights gathered from the study and draw parallels to identify pertinent responses for the ongoing pandemic.

An interruption in business is the culmination of all the challenges that an MSME faces after a disaster. This interruption is heightened by disruptions in the value chain and limited access to cash. The following graphic summarizes the causes and aftermath of such a business interruption below.

GIZ – RFPI in the Philippines commissioned the MSC study, “Disaster Risk Insurance for MSMEs in the Philippines” in 2018. The insights generated led to the development of MSME-focused insurance responses by insurers in the Philippines. MSC conducted the study across three regions in the Philippines: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The sample comprised 121 MSMEs, with 66% micro, 30% small, and 4% medium enterprises across multiple lines of business.

MSME- business interruption

MSME- business interruption

Source: MSC analysis

Because of such disruption, MSMEs face directly as well as indirect financial losses. Direct losses include loss of assets, such as buildings, machinery and equipment, and loss of inventory. Indirect losses, on the other hand, are due to business stoppage, value chain disruption, unavailability of raw materials, and decrease in revenue. Overall, indirect losses from a catastrophe account for more cumulative losses than direct losses suffered.

In the aftermath of disasters, MSMEs usually need a cash infusion to re-start businesses. The study identified that on average, 34% of respondents relied on formal credit, such as MFIs and pawnshops, while 33% of respondents reported self-financing losses using their savings. Only 15% of respondents took financial support from informal sources, while 18% of respondents were forced to reduce their workforce to cut down on costs.

Savings are the most readily available source of funding. However, entrepreneurs rarely demarcate their savings. Therefore, they use the same savings to meet the needs of their household and business. As a result, we found these resources only helped MSMEs bridge an eight to 10-day business interruption period. Cost-cutting was also an option, but only for larger MSMEs with enough staff to downsize. Most micro-enterprises are generally family-owned or operated. Reducing their workforce is not an option. We also found that after a disaster, 10%-12% of the MSMEs surveyed did not recover and shut down permanently. These were mostly microenterprises, and these businesses could not withstand a disruption of more than 60 days.

Government ministries in the Philippines have developed policy-level responses to strengthen the resilience of MSMEs. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has established a financing mechanism that facilitates access to credit for MSMEs in the aftermath of a disaster. The DTI further promotes business continuity planning as part of its business finance and management education campaigns called “Mentor Me”, which target MSMEs. The DTI also supports the development of risk financing tools, such as insurance for disasters. Our study also concluded that business interruption insurance would benefit MSMEs after disasters.

On the user front, MSMEs identified that an ideal business interruption insurance product should have the following features:

MSME identified features for business interruption insurance product

MSME identified features for business interruption insurance product

Source: MSC analysis

There are parallels for supporting MSMEs hit by COVID-19. MSC is currently undertaking a three-stage research study across eight countries in Asia and Africa to understand the nature and extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on MSMEs. The insights from the 2018 Philippines study correlate closely with initial findings from MSC’s dip-stick study of MSEs in eight countries. Some key support areas for MSMEs include:

  • Make blended cash accessible, fast: It is paramount that MSMEs, especially microenterprises, have access to cash to survive this pandemic. MSMEs need a dedicated fund to meet their working capital requirements, as well as essential household and living expenses. Such a fund would offer blended loans—a mix of grants and credit. While the grants cover essential household expenses, the credit would be used to meet the needs of working capital. This is important to ensure that both businesses and families weather the storm, and MSMEs are not forced to use expensive credit for essential consumption purposes.
  • Governments, MSME associations, and financial institutions must come together to administer the cash assistance identified above: To establish blended funds, grants should come from governments or international donor agencies that seek to assist the MSME sector. Local and international financial institutions should provide credit to these funds. These funds must be overseen by associations and chambers run by representatives of the MSMEs to ensure that the money is directed to the target sectors and segments. While registered, tax-paying MSMEs should have the first claim to relief. A portion of this can also be earmarked for informal MSMEs, which includes most micro and small enterprises. In the past, a lack of official recognition has made it challenging for MSMEs to access funds from state-run programs. One way to address this issue could be to allow unregistered MSMEs to self-certify to access the relief funds. In the long term, countries could introduce a low touch and paperlite registration for all microenterprises to allow them to qualify for support in the event of a disaster.
  • Make assistance accessible to all businesses and value chains: In the pandemic, MSMEs that deal in non-essential items, such as cloth shops and small manufacturing entities have been hit much harder. Available assistance must be accessible to all MSMEs that need it. Value chains, both local and part of the wider network, have also been hampered severely and must be eligible to draw on assistance. Therefore, support to backend service providers like cargo transporters and storage facilities is an important piece of the puzzle to get the value chain back up and running quickly.

At the policy level, long-term resilience of MSMEs must be at the core of all measures to limit fall-outs from such shocks in the future:

  • MSMEs must develop business continuity plans. Government agencies that promote MSMEs and support agencies should take the lead in helping MSMEs develop better risk management capacities. They should encourage MSMEs to:
  1. Develop rainy-day reserves to tide them over during business interruptions. This can be undertaken through the promotion of savings products for MSMEs with favorable interest rates. These promotions can be incentivized. One possible idea could be that future government relief would be defined multiple of the value of such savings.
  2. Have contingency plans in place to respond to business interruptions. These plans could take the shape of well-defined cost-cutting measures, as well as diversification strategies.
  • A comprehensive multi-risk business interruption insurance product would help MSMEs become self-reliant and resilient in the face of hazards like disasters and pandemics, as well as other risks, such as fires and theft. Insurers and market facilitators should consider bundling business interruption insurance with business development loans. It is also crucial that such products are designed with user needs and context in mind. The characteristics of such insurance products should include quick claims assessment and automatic payouts based on directives issued by the government, as with some crop insurances. These products should ensure payouts are made immediately into the bank accounts of MSMEs after the government declares a disaster or a pandemic.
  • Given the vulnerability of MSMEs to disasters and pandemics, there should be more reliance on digital access to financial services. For example, in our Philippines MSME study, none of the MSMEs interviewed reported using digital financial service platforms other than Internet banking services. Whether for credit or insurance, greater access to digital finance will create disaster- and pandemic-resistant pathways and provide speed and transparency. An example of this is in India where the government has made use of the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan bank accounts, Aadhaar ID cards, and Mobile payments infrastructure) to process 403 million transactions by 140 million of the low- and middle-income segment to access cash relief against the COVID-19 crisis.

Confronted with “grey swan” events, such as a disaster or pandemic, MSMEs face long business interruptions. The immediate response in such situations must be swift and blended. In the long-term, policymakers should focus on helping MSMEs devise business continuity and risk management plans by promoting risk reserves and business interruption insurance solutions. MSMEs must also adopt digital financial services because, as the current COVID-19 pandemic has shown, digital access remains largely functional when all other avenues have shut down. For now, however, we must focus on getting cash into the hands of MSMEs, and fast.

Reference note:

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global health pandemic. Life as we once knew it has been suspended suddenly. Among those who have been hit the hardest are micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

As per the IFC, an enterprise qualifies as a micro, small or medium if it meets two out of three criteria of the IFC MSME definition (employees, assets, and sales), or if an outstanding loan on its books falls within the relevant MSME loan size proxy

criteria of the IFC MSME definition criteria of the IFC MSME definition

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste: Let us design a social security program for gig workers!

Posted on by MSC

India announced a nationwide lockdown on 24th March, 2020 to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial days after the lockdown were disruptive for tech-based delivery platforms, as the government instructed these platforms to restrict their deliveries to essential goods and services alone. These platforms became increasingly flooded with orders as government directives restricted the movement of citizens. A rushed decision and lack of clarity on the implementation guidelines resulted in on-ground confusion, causing frustrating delays in the delivery of goods.

With customers unwilling and in many places unable to go out and shop, the opportunity for tech platforms was there for the taking. Eager not to miss out, some agile tech platforms quickly formed innovative partnerships to ensure deliveries and minimize the impact of the lockdown on their businesses. BigBasket, a grocery delivery platform, which is classified as an essential service, forged a partnership with Uber to complement its delivery fleet. Uber entered the arrangement as cabs were deemed a non-essential service, and therefore had an idle fleet available to deploy. Similarly, the grocery delivery platform Grofers hired 2,500 people to continue delivering services from affiliated industries and partner companies that had to shut down.

The effect of COVID-19 on platform-based gig work

The gig workers across tech platforms who offer rideshare, personal and home care, and delivery services have not been so lucky. Initially, the possibility of no work and therefore no income during the lockdown forced many of them to travel back to their villages. Many such workers and their families have had to walk hundreds of kilometers to do so. The ones who continued to work faced the occasional wrath of the police and local authorities.

The driver-partners of ride-share platforms Uber and Ola have been hit the worst. Even as they face mounting losses in income, they are under pressure to repay their car loan installments. Meanwhile, the need for strict hygiene and safety measures meant that food delivery continued to operate at lower than normal levels. Researchers Simiran Lalvani and Bhavani Seetharaman report from their self-administered survey of food delivery workers that the proportion of delivery partners who would earlier receive 16-20 orders per day went down from 30.9% to 7.2% post the lockdown.

Platforms support to the gig-workers

Urban Company, a tech platform for home-based services, extended interest-free loans, health insurance of up to INR 25,000 (~USD 325), and income protection to its partners if diagnosed with COVID-19. Similarly, Ola has been offering interest-free microloans of up to INR 3,600 (~USD 50) and has waived lease rentals for driver-partners. It has also offered health insurance of up to INR 30,000 (USD 390) for all driver-partners and their spouses.

Despite the usual gaps between promises and actual implementation, the measures that these platforms have put in place are steps in the right direction as they consider the health and economic security of the gig-workers. However, one may wonder why the platforms hesitated to implement such measures before the COVID-19 outbreak. Gig workers have continued to face challenges around the lack of transparency in remuneration structure and payout, absence of safety nets, and long working hours, all of which have had an impact on their health and economic security.

These problems are not new and definitely cannot be attributed to COVID-19. These issues have been talked about for some time now. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing crisis should lead to more concrete action to develop a social security program for gig workers.

Designing a social security program for gig workers for the future

In India, 72% of the labor force or around 303 million people work in the informal sector and lack income protection or other safety nets in times of crisis. The country has around 275 million people who live under USD 1.25 per day and another 300 million people who cannot withstand a sudden shock like the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic and the ensuing lockdown have resulted in the labor force participation rate (LPR) contracting from 43% in late 2019 to 36% by 5th April 2020. The LPR declined by 3% between 29th March and 5th April alone, which hints at the enormous impact of the pandemic on the economy.

Given the size of the informal workforce and their vulnerability, particularly in times of crisis, designing social security programs for gig workers who comprise an emerging subset of the informal workforce could be a good starting point.

The role of technology and the formal financial system in creating a social security net

Tech platform-based gig workers are better equipped than others are in the informal sector in terms of their access to technology and the use of formal financial services. They receive their payments in bank accounts and know how to use smartphones. However, like other informal workers, their incomes vary according to the total time worked, availability of orders on the platforms, and seasonality of demand and migration patterns. Gig workers also alternate between one or two service providers to take advantage of any differential incentives on offer.

These attributes suggest that gig workers need a model of social security distinct from the ones prevalent for formal sector workers, such as the Employment Provident Fund Organization, or the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PMSYM), which targets informal workers in general. The variability, temporary nature, and seasonality of demand for gig work require careful design of the model to ensure wider adoption.

With the advancement of technology, the sharing and portability of social security accounts across multiple platforms no longer pose as barriers. Improvements in payments technologies enable low-value transactions at low costs like the Unified Payments Interface, while a million-strong physical cash-in cash-out network can help the design of scalable social security systems for gig workers.

The role of the government

In their book In Service of the Republic, Ajay Shah and Vijay Kelkar point to the limited capacity of the Indian state and caution against expecting too much from the government. The government has diminished capacity to design and implement large-scale social security programs for gig workers. This will be truer still in the aftermath of this crisis.

Shah and Kelkar suggest that the ideal role of the government should be on the “regulatory” and “financing” aspects of the system. One of the criticisms of the several social security programs that the Indian government runs is that these are fragmented and limited in their coverage of informal workers. Therefore, the government should focus on creating a universal social security system with the participation of the private sector to include all informal workers.

The government, therefore, should frame rules to implement the program and provide a platform for dialog among stakeholders—including private sector players and labor unions. It should also determine the size and scale of the subsidy. This entails committing its contribution to social security programs to maintain a minimum social security floor and complement the contribution from individuals or employers, or both.

In conclusion, as the lockdown lifts slowly across India, the immediate focus will be to kick-start the economy and push the participation rates of the labor force up to pre-COVID-19 levels. State and national governments will continue to remain stretched from the emergency spending during the crisis. Therefore, the role of the platform economy will be crucial to provide economic opportunities for informal workers.

This crisis offers tremendous opportunities to derive valuable lessons. The absence of a well-functioning social security system has aggravated the sheer scale and impact of the crisis on the livelihoods of the bottom 40% of the population. Not only is gig work likely to be a key component of India’s economy moving forward, but it also provides unique opportunities to provide embedded social safety nets. India could, and indeed should, pioneer this.

Formal financial services, informal workers: How can financial services work for the gig economy?

Posted on by MSC

It is a new week and month. Miriam rises in the morning, prints 20 copies of her résumé, and ventures into the city of Nairobi. She plans to drop her resume at different companies within the Central Business District in the hope of getting a job. It has been nine months now since she graduated with a diploma in electrical engineering from a local technical college. Yet she has not been able to get formal employment.

The scarcity of formal job opportunities is increasingly becoming a cause of frustration for young people in Kenya, much like Miriam. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation even further. Unable to secure formal employment, Miriam had been using her skills to provide electrical repair services to people in her locality and, in turn, making some money to get her going. Given the essential nature of her work, Miriam is still able to receive calls to fix domestic electrical faults. The income from these odd jobs would be decent—if they were more regular and better paid. She wants to be her own boss, but the jobs she gets from friends and previous customers are not enough.

According to the United Nations, the rate of unemployment[1] in Kenya is at 11.5%. This is significantly higher than its neighbors Tanzania and Uganda, which have unemployment rates of 2.2% and 2.1% respectively. It is important that we solve issues of unemployment, which fall under Sustainable Development Goals 1, to end poverty, and 8 to promote economic growth. Abundant opportunities for income generation for the youth in Kenya lie in the informal sector. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics estimates that in 2018, 83% of the employed in Kenya were in the informal sector. This number has been consistent and growing for the past five years, demonstrating the critical role the informal sector plays in the economy.

The informal sector has several characteristic features. These include small-scale activities, low entry and exit barriers, skills gained mostly from vocational schools, less capital investment, limited or no job security, and self-employment. The proliferation of digital financial services has also enabled remote working and payment, where possible. However, the informal sector faces several challenges:

  • Poor and irregular pay: Informal jobs are not consistent. The remuneration is usually low as informal jobs are often considered of less value.
  • Lack of awareness and minimal protection of workers by labor laws: Workers are exposed to mistreatment, wrongful dismissal, and poor working conditions, among others.
  • Lack of access to necessary financial services, such as insurance, credit, and pension: Informal workers lack transaction history and job security, which impedes their ability to access credit and insurance.
  • Lack of employment history: Save for personal referrals, informal workers are rarely able to demonstrate their track record to get jobs.
  • Loss of potential government revenue: Most informal workers do not contribute to income tax.

So how does the informal sector become more conducive for the worker? How do we solve issues of informal employment, such as poor pay, inconsistent jobs, and lack of access to financial service? The platform economy is one solution that helps informal workers to benefit from the advantages of the formal economy. Through these digital platforms, the records of workers are well captured and retrievable. Sometimes referred to as the gig economy, these digital platforms are marketplaces where independent workers meet customers to offer one-off, short-term services like transport, plumbing, electrical installation or repair, research, and web development, among others.

Below are current examples across the globe:

Platform economy across the globe Platform economy across the globe

Description of Lynk

Description of Lynk

Formalizing aspects of the informal sector

Gig platforms guarantee the informal worker that they will have continuous work. Customers trust the platforms to provide safe and vetted expertise on the platforms. Informal workers now access more opportunities every day and have a stable income. Miriam is now part of a gig platform and offers multiple electrical installation and repair services through the platform. She benefits through a mix of on-the-platform and off-the-platform jobs. She continues to serve people from her locality alongside new consumers through the platform based on their location.

With the increasing number of COVID-19 infected cases and government-imposed lockdown and social distancing measures, some app-based services have flourished. Glovo, a delivery firm, was reported as among the most downloaded apps for the month of March 2020, in Kenya.

The COVID-19 pandemic has however, had a drastic impact on traditional physically accessed informal jobs. The manicure artist, for instance, who waited for customers passing by her shop, now does not have any more business as the customers are all at home, keeping safe from the spread of the virus. The carpenter, who relied on customers passing by the road to see and buy great furniture, is not able to sell his goods as the customer is at home. Once the artisan is able to display their goods on an online platform, the customer will access these good seamlessly. The customer still needs furniture and good nails, but they need it in the safety of their homes.

Gig platforms collect large amounts of data. This data includes information, such as the number of engagements, the payment amounts, the variety of services provided, and customer testimonials. Such data may be useful in enabling informal workers to access a range of financial services, such as credit, pension, and insurance. Some jurisdictions require gig platforms to provide insurance policies such as Work Injury Benefits Act (WIBA), especially when contracting blue-collar workers who face risks involving accidents at work.

MSC recently engaged local insurance companies to develop microinsurance products for gig-workers. The platform is piloting the use of transaction and job data to provide adequate cover to gig workers through dynamic and on-demand policies. Such insurance products are beneficial to both the gig-workers and the gig platforms. However, developing such insurance products requires re-thinking insurance models to make them more customer-centric as well as cater to the digitally-transforming informal sector. Gig platforms must also explore the role of incentives, such as financial education to help gig workers improve their livelihood through digitally-issued financial services like insurance.

Miriam started getting work through Lynk to offer electrical repair services. “I am now earning better than my peers who joined a formal job, thanks to the platform”, Miriam beamed. She is her own boss and is optimistic about her future now.

In the next blog, we explore in more depth how to develop insurance and other financial services for gig workers.

[1]Unemployment is defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) as “not in paid employment or self-employment, but is available for work and has taken steps to seek employment or self-employment”.

What is the gig economy and what role will technology play in its growth?

Posted on by MSC

The gig economy has opened up more job opportunities especially in the informal sector. Technology will create a whole new set of opportunities in the gig economy. Watch this video and learn more.

Developing formal financial services for informal gig workers webinar

Posted on by MSC

Speakers from MSC and BFA Global share their key insights on their work with Lynk- a gig platform for informal workers. They also discuss how they assisted Lynk in creating insurance and microinsurance product concepts for gig workers and credit respectively at a webinar on 18th May 2020.