News

Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) together with the InsuResilience Global Partnership, through its Centre of Excellence on Gender-smart Solutions, are once again jointly sponsoring the participation of an insurance supervisor and a high-potential woman in the Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators. The program is taught by Women’s World Banking and Faculty from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and implemented together with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI). It is intended to support insurance supervisors and regulators in developing policies that close the gender gap in inclusive insurance and in developing women’s leadership capacity in regulatory organizations.  

Description of the training 

The virtual, 12-week global leadership program brings together senior officials (male/female/nonbinary) from central banks and other regulatory agencies and high-potential women (mid-level professional) from their respective institutions.  

The participating regulator will nominate a team of a senior official and a high-potential woman official from the agency. During the program, the senior official identifies a policy initiative to sponsor at their institution related to serving the women’s market and works with their high-potential woman leader to implement it while supporting her professional development during and after the program. 

The program involves a series of interactive live online sessions, individual and group assignments, peer action learning as well as expert consultation and coaching opportunities. Each senior official identifies a policy initiative to advance women’s financial inclusion and selects a high-potential woman leader from their institution with whom to partner in designing and implementing this initiative. The senior official invests in the woman leader’s professional growth through career mentorship and sponsorship. Senior officials will receive 4 executive coaching sessions. 

The scholarship is particularly tailored for professionals that intend to develop policy initiatives focusing on Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance solutions (e.g., agricultural insurance, risk transfer solutions for the most vulnerable, and similar) against the backdrop of increasing risk of climate change impacts in developing countries. 

The virtual program begins on 2 May 2022. The details on the course are accessible here.
Please note that the program is in English.  

What will participants gain?  

Leadership Skills: Learn core skills such as change management, influence, emotional intelligence, and unconscious bias.  

Women’s Financial Inclusion Knowledge: Understand global challenges and best practices in gender-inclusive policy design and implementation. 

A Global Network: Engage in an action learning methodology that leverages peer-to-peer learning and support.  

Eligibility criteria 

SENIOR OFFICIAL (male/female/nonbinary) 

• Senior officials from central banks and other regulatory agencies in emerging markets  
• Part of executive/senior management team or leads a regulatory division  

HIGH-POTENTIAL WOMAN LEADER  

• Mid-level professional, 5-10 years of experience  
• Exhibits skills and capability to be promoted to the next level of leadership or broaden their role significantly 
• Has demonstrated the ability to lead people in the organization 
• Motivated to take on new leadership challenges and opportunities 
• People managers preferred but not required 

BOTH PARTICIPANTS  

Commitment to:  

• Advancing an inclusive policy initiative 
• Cultivating and fostering an active sponsorship relationship 
• Actively participating in online and peer learning sessions 
• Exhibiting proficiency in written and spoken English

Key requirements for obtaining the scholarship

• The applicant insurance regulators need to nominate up to one to two Senior Officials (male/female/non-binary, e.g., directors, deputy directors, senior regulators) and one to two high-potential women leaders from their Organisation.  
• Preference would be provided to countries from the Vulnerable 20 (V20) Group. 
• Commitment to the development of a policy for inclusive insurance which either directly focuses on addressing gender gaps related to climate change and risk management or contributes to the development of an enabling environment for gender-equitable insurance, which could indirectly support climate change and risk management projects. 
• Ability to commit to a 12-week long program with multiple virtual touch points.  
• Willingness to engage and contribute to the InsuResilience Global Partnership and A2ii Annual Report on progress including overall feedback on participation of the course.  
   

What the scholarship covers:  

The joint A2ii-InsuResilience Global Partnership scholarship will cover the program fee (up to $7000) for the duration of the Leadership Program, including tuition and one-on-one advisory support for two participants per institution (senior official and high-potential woman leader). 

In addition, there may be opportunity to access customised, one-on-one coaching for policy implementation after the successful completion of the program.  

Interested?  

If you are interested in the scholarship opportunity, please send an email to jana.siebeneck[at]insuresilience.org and manoj.pandey[at]a2ii.org with the subject line: “Scholarship: Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators” and we will provide you with further information. Please contact us before 20 March 2022.